Recordings by NASA

[Cloud Hunter]

Hi everyone.

I wanted to share this after a quick search of the forums yielded no matches. I was fascinated to learn several years ago from a friend that NASA were somehow able to record 'sounds' coming from planets and other bodies in our solar system. Of course, they're not really sounds, but rather electromagnetic radiations recorded by Voyager and converted into soundwaves that we can hear. Don't fully understand the tech behind it all, but I thought it amazing that the universe naturally creates its own form of what could be called ambient music. Somebody uploaded a short video which provides an overview of what it all sounds like.

Enjoy. I hope all readers will find this as fascinating as I do.

[GaryG]

Thanks.

There was a pretty interesting 'Sky At Night' on TV a few months back where they investigated sounds made by the Sun. All to do with movement of gases and pressure waves coming up to the surface so internal changes can be analysed by studying changes on the surface. Or something. Helioseismology they called it, damn cool name for an ambient release.

[Thought Experiment]

Fascinating - the real 'music of the spheres' Saturn sounded like a very scary place - just waiting to be made into a dark ambient piece.

Now I'm wondering who's going to be the first one to lower the tone of this thread by remarking on the noise emanating from Uranus...:o sorry just couldn't help myself

[AstroAndMusic]

There are some great sounds within astronomical data. I recently created a piece of music based on data from the IRIS satellite observing the sun at ultraviolet wavelengths. One of the data products are spectra of the singly ionized Magnesium atom (called 'Mg II'). This is actually a double-line with some very interesting structure that hopefully can tell us more about how energy is transported from the surface of the sun to the corona and outward into space. I took data from the 'h' line of Mg II spectral line at about 2803 angstroms. The spectra are arranged to correspond to specific features on the sun seen at that wavelength. So as one scans from one location on the sun to another, there are changes in the spectral data values.

I took those differences and modulated them to go between 1 and 8. Each of these then corresponds to a tone, in a particular modality and key of my choosing. I created an interesting sound and played the "Data Music" (you heard it here first!) and came up with this:

http://soundcloud.com/cosmiclettuce/sun-mag-ii-h-spectrum

I have many ideas about the interface between data (of all kinds) and music. I'll share them as I make them.

Peace, CL