The Sounds Of Space Near Jupiter 84
Kumba writes "Found this while perusing NASA's Web site. It's an audio clip produced from radio waves detected near Jupiter by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and converted to audible sound by some scientists at the University of Iowa. A clip that they had last week was described by the Los Angeles Times as sounding "like a troop of howler monkeys battling underwater." The new audio clip is....difficult to describe in my opinion. I guess it's best left to each listener to determine what it sounds like, but if you've ever wondered what it sounds like out there, this is it." I had a set of five CDs a while back that had collections of sounds made from one of the NASA missions - it was called Sounds of Space or the Universe. Pretty interesting set - but then, of course, like most of my possessions it burned in a house fire and I've been unable to find it since then.
I never really understood (Score:1)
What's the point?
Sure it has a little novelty of it, but it's not generally soothing/interesting. I mean, do people actually turn something like this on before they go to bed?
Instead of the funny screeching noises I just heard, I like the ocean waves. Heck maybe even music?
I'm just wondering.
Damn... (Score:2)
That's nothing... (Score:1)
I've translated the radio waves (Score:4)
na-fa-lo-ba-nu-ki-li ta-la-ba-ba-fa-to-pu
ro-lu-fa-ti
Anyone know where I can get a surplus aircraft carrier?
I think you are looking for Symphonies, not sounds (Score:3)
NASA - Symphonies Of The Planets, Volume 2 at least is the voyeger recordings. Cdnow doesn't have it, but half.com does (for les then $5 for many of them).
Enjoy.
Re:I've translated the radio waves (Score:3)
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In space... (Score:1)
What does a goatse.cx troll sound like in zero gravity?
Play it backwards (Score:3)
Radio Waves (Score:1)
Mod this down (Score:1)
Seeka
something-new-for-the-eyes dept (Score:1)
And if you listen real close.... (Score:2)
Not sure if we should waste the taxpayers money... (Score:1)
Personally I think all space research should be canned until we have solved the problems of life here on Earth.That means no more NASA until we have eradicated poverty and hunger in the third world, put a stop to global warming, pollution, corporatism, and the myriad other environmental issue we face.
We do not have much time. The sea levels are rising even as I write this.
Whoa.. (Score:1)
Seeka
Could be a cool intro to a techno song. (Score:1)
Other Space sound albums (Score:1)
The Arecibo album was called "Trans Plutonian Transmissions" IIRC... Very trancy stuff.
Re:I never really understood (Score:2)
I know people who can analyze mechanical problems in machinery through a stethoscope for instance.
Re:House fire (Score:1)
It's hardly "what it sounds like out there". (Score:1)
It's hardly "what it sounds like out there"; it doesn't sound like anything out there, since it's a vacuum. What's happened is that phenomena which humans can't experience directly (radio waves) have been converted into phenomena that we can (sound).
Now, of course, this is what's happening every time you draw a graph (where a mass of data becomes readable shapes, lines and dots) or use your watch (where the internal state representing the date becomes LED readout or angular configuration of the hands), so this kind of abstraction is a vital tool in making sense of the world. But that doesn't mean that we can take these recordings and say "So this is what it sounds like out there!" (Compare someone seeing a map of the Internet [thinkgeek.com] and saying "Aha! So that's what the Internet looks like!")
M
GOD IS ALIVE!!!! (Score:4)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Sounds of Space??? (Score:1)
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seumas.com
Re:I never really understood (Score:1)
Apparently.
-- Eat your greens or I'll hit you!
Re:I think you are looking for Symphonies, not sou (Score:1)
What is sounds like out there (Score:4)
I'm sure people are going to mention this, so I thought I'd be first;
There is *no* sound in space. None at all.
I'm not saying that these audio clips are not interesting, or that they don't necessarily contain some sort of useful data. But the fulfillment factor in listening to these should be the same as looking at a graph of x vs. y; because if you think about it, way out in the cold depths of space, your ears do not pick up sound because there is no medium to transfer sound.
What's more is, were a small event to occur which normally should be heard here on earth, ie; two small rocks colaid; you wouldn't hear that either, because these are radio waves. Larger events, you can hear, but they are a reflection of things you do not see or relate to properly, since once again, these are radio waves and not vibrational waves caused by friction.
My point is, don't believe the hype: when people tell you it's possible to get a CD of sounds from space, what you're really getting is a small selection of the huge radio-spectrum converted to screechy, unintelligible garble. For that matter, it is possible to give any radio signal a certain characteristic (ie: easy to listen to, noisy screeching) because you decide the method used to represent that wave as a sound wave; since they are wholly different.
Who's to say that these radio-waves to sound-waves you hear would even sound the same were another person to take the raw data and convert it to sound; they probably [myhometechie.com] wouldn't. So really, you're hearing 1 person (or 1 small group of peoples) interpretation of data put to unintelligible garble.
I hate fads.
I`m getting something... (Score:1)
Even if nobody else gets it... (Score:1)
I will now go and chuckle heartily.
OK,
- B
--
Jingle bells (Score:1)
(You also need some imagination).
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Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:1)
These radio waves were detected at very low frequencies. That means they have a very long wavelength [myhometechie.com]; (ie:) physically, their wave length could be measured in meters.
When you convert this to sound, you end up with base of such a low wavelength, a modern speaker probably could not produce it. If it could, it would probably be outside the range of human hearing. If you could hear it, it would be very bass-y, and not high-pitched such as in the example.
This means that in even a direct translation to audible sound, the radio waves frequency was shifted into the audible sound-wave spectrum. This also means the researchers decided exactly how much to shift it, and so it really *doesn't* sound like the radio wave would -- could your ears hear radio waves.
Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:1)
Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:1)
So really, you're hearing 1 person (or 1 small group of peoples) interpretation of data put to unintelligible garble.
However, if the radio waves were transmitted by something intelligent (ie., a troop of howler monkeys battling underwater) then there could be some pattern or message discernable by hearing the sound equivalent. For example, if the radio waves were AM modulated to carry something like morse code then you could hear the code if the correct conversion was done audibly.
NASA might do this type of conversion for any signal as a simple means of checking for a patterns in the radio signals. Then perhaps someone at NASA someday realized that there was a musical quality to their converted signals and thought, "this is better than zamphire music near crashing waves", and then decided to market it.
Sounds groovy (Score:1)
Hacker: A criminal who breaks into computer systems
Re:Other Space sound albums (Score:1)
Sweet. I just downloaded this after reading your comment. I like it. I'll have to check Ozone next time I'm downtown and see if there's a way to get a copy.
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seumas.com
Sounds of Jupiter - Volume 1 (Score:1)
Gee - why stop there?!? (Score:3)
Bah - arguments like this against the space program really upset me. If we were to put off space research until all the problems are Earth are solved, then we're doomed to die as a species when the sun burns out.
Re:Not sure if we should waste the taxpayers money (Score:1)
You are thinking along the right lines with 1) and 2). Think a bit harder and you'll see that I am correct. Life is not "Star Trek" however much you might want it to be that way.
It sounds like ... (Score:2)
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Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:4)
Sure, there is! Sound is just pressure waves in gas, so if there is a gas, and there are waves in it, there is sound. The only place there is no sound at all, is if you've got a perfect vacuum, but I haven't seen a lot of those lately. ;-)
Now, audible sound is a completely different matter. :-)
I'm not quite sure what these guys have done. Apparently, they've converted radio waves, and you are right, it is not necessarily meaningful, and indeed in most cases it is completely meaningless, to convert radio waves (electromagnetic radiation) to sound waves (pressure waves in gas) and call it the "Sound of Space". If it had been gravtiational radiation, it would have been more fun.
It could be meaningful (at least a bit), if the radio waves had been created by some pressure waves in gas, so that the radio waves resemble the original pressure waves, and many such processes are imagineable.
Now this is far from clear to me from the link, but isn't this the case here: That the radio waves have been created by pressure waves in the plasma, and so when the radio waves are converted to sound, it shares characteristics with the original pressure waves? It might not be that bad.... :-)
Links: Where to buy the CDs (Score:3)
Of course, this is all new age type aesthetics. Some folks may be uncomfortable with this.
another possibly useful space hobby page with multimedia stuff is here [hobbyspace.com]
So maybe Hemos can replace his collection.
Delta Sleep System (Score:1)
Of Howler Monkeys and Monoliths (Score:1)
^.
( @ )
Soylent Foods, Inc.
I've applied some audio filters.... (Score:1)
"Liberate tu te me ex inferes!"
The failed Mars mission had a microphone onboard (Score:1)
http://www.blitzbasic.com/
Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:1)
#3 - Law of Sonic Amplification, First Law of Anime Accoustics
In space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way.
http://www.tapanime.com/fun/animelaws.html
Re:Remember (Score:1)
I've always liked Anonymous Cowards :)
Re:I've translated the radio waves (Score:1)
I think he didn't.
Un til it says "All these worlds are yours... (Score:1)
Right. Like I'm really in PH33R of some anonymous coward alien race that never shows its face.
Breaking news. (Score:1)
"You must leave the area around Jupiter within 2 days. Something is going to happen. Something wonderful."
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Re:Not sure if we should waste the taxpayers money (Score:1)
That's called the tide. Hang on for 6 hours then it'll start falling again.
Seriously, what adverse affect on the world's weather patterns do you see arising from this? None.
How much more effect would it have if the USA (mainly, although there were other guilty parties) had NOT demanded a relaxing of the already lax new emissions levels? A hell of a lot more of a positive effect.
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rpws_010104.wav??? (Score:1)
When did they ship the monkeys to Jupiter? (Score:2)
Heck, i can do that on earth ;) (Score:2)
Sounds better, too!
Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:1)
Does the moon have a huge megnetic field, too? (Score:1)
So I wonder if Stanley's spirit is rubbing it into Arthur's face, being that the sounds have come from Jupiter, not Saturn. Then again, the Cassini is only swinging around Jupiter for a gravity speed boost, en route to Saturn, coinciding with Arthur's version....
fun with sound editors (Score:1)
It sounds like bird chirping to me... (Score:2)
Re:Not sure if we should waste the taxpayers money (Score:1)
First, of course, as long as we're using troll logic, putting this radio data into sound form cost so little of "the taxpayers money" that I can't see why anyone would care. If you really do, fine, it was *my* money that went to pay for it, and I give them retroactive permission.
But you say you don't want any space exploration until we've got our act together down here. Right. Uh-huh. Pop quiz: what technology lets us(a) measure atmospheric conditions, including temperature, ozone & pollution levels, humidity, wind patterns, etc. over the entire planet, (b) essay land usage over the entire planet, (c) keep track of arctic ice packs (d) measure water temperature & sea levels, and (e) communicate all this information around the world so we can act on it?
Gosh, maybe satellite technology? Sure, let's abandon that! It hasn't helped us at all!
Not to mention that space is such an unusual environment that simply developing the technology to explore it leads to new insights and discoveries. You have no idea how much modern medical technology (even the mass-produced stuff that's made it to third-world countries) owes to the space program and the utter necessity of having small, low-power, reliable medical sensors and other medical equipment. Not to mention computer technology, materials science, etc.
Could this stuff have been developed without going into space. Sure. Would it have? I doubt it. Necessity is really the mother of invention and without it, without being forced to find new ways to do things, engineers will use the tried-and-true ways.
Do you honestly think that studying the environments on other planets won't spark new insights about our own? Mars had water once, and doesn't now. Why? What might that imply for our Earth?
Then, of course, there are even more practical reasons for research into space technology. You are worried about global warming. Why not generate power with orbiting solar panels? Beam the power down to Earth in a form that makes it through the atmosphere efficiently (e.g. microwaves) and suddenly we don't need to burn so much fossil fuel. Or just put the nuclear plants in space the same way. If there's a meltdown, it's 100,000 miles away, and if we're really worried, we just send a robot over there with a rocket to accelerate it to escape velocity and drop it in the sun.
Do you think even poor people would benefit from the ultrapure chemicals that could be synthesized in space (e.g. pharmeceuticals)? What can we make in microgravity that we can't here? We hardly know, we've barely even tried!
Ah, well, lunch is over, back to work.
Doesn't this sound just like ... (Score:1)
HEY! (Score:1)
Re:Not sure if we should waste the taxpayers money (Score:1)
And what does it do with all that money? Well, a few billion run the biggest earth science surface and satellite measurement program on the planet. Which monitors daily the status of sea level change and global pollution, amongst many other issues and looks for long term change and the possible impacts such change might have.
No more NASA till we solve hunger? Here's a better one. Let's cancel schools and universities and hospitals till we solve world hunger and global warming.
You Earthlings have no Rythum ! (Score:1)
It's nice to see such primitive beings attempting to analyse my music, I will now fine tune your solar system
(once I can find my towel that is...)
Muuuuuuuuuuuu hahahhahaha heeeeeeeeeee hah urp brap pardon me muuuuuuuuuu hahahahehehe eeeeehehehhehehehe
What it sounds like... (Score:1)
Are they sure it's in orbit around Jupiter and not under my car?
Re:Radio Waves (Score:1)
I know what it is! (Score:1)
The Clangers! [clangers.co.uk]
Re:I've applied some audio filters.... (Score:1)
about as meaningful as many images (Score:3)
Use LAME instead. (Score:1)
fly all the way to jupiter and still don't know how to use bladeenc
Better yet, use LAME Audio MP3 Encoder [sulaco.org]. Despite the name, it's reported to have better subjective quality than bladeenc. And if you can't figure out how to use it, here's a cheat sheet:
-h is best precision math; -v is VBR; -m m is mono; rpws_010104.wav is the name of a RIFF WAVE file.Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them? [pineight.com]
Re:I never really understood (Score:2)
Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:1)
If there's a Big Bang and no one is around to hear it, does it truly make a sound?
pseudomoderation: -1 irrelevant links (Score:1)
I hate irrelevant [geocities.com] links inserted into a comment just to draw hits for someone [slashdot.org]'s lame attempt at becoming a dot-com millionaire.
Re:That's nothing... (Score:2)
http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/
there are
Re:I think you are looking for Symphonies, not sou (Score:1)
its a fraud (Score:1)
1. walk out back with cheap microphone, record crickets, amplify till they're loud enough
2. give recording to several well-known rap stars who have recently fallen on hard times. get them to sign an NDA so they don't talk about why they've been remixing crickets for the past three weeks
3. take remixes, splice them all together, run through noise reduction and high pass filters to remove added bass beat.
4. now run that through some cheesy compression for that "outer space" sound, decompress and post the uncompressed result.
there ya go, instant space sounds. With the right marketing you'll be able to hit #1 on the charts - instant sucsess.
What does Light sound like? (Score:2)
This is all very nice, that someone in Iowa figured out a way to convert data to sound but and I repeat BUT there is nothing even close to true analog sound. This article only proves once again that given the time and money someone will find a way to come up with some absolutely worthless result.
Besides, sound cannot travel in a vaccum and there are no whales in space.
Re:Not necessarily (Score:1)
This guy's right.
Re:Not sure if we should waste the taxpayers money (Score:1)
I mean this to be personal so...The only thing that needs to be "canned" is Flabdabb.
Please Downgrade the root post to Troll
Unix, Linux, Open Source, Slashdot Rules.
Re:What is sounds like out there (Score:1)
There is *no* sound in space. None at all.
Actually, according to the 3rd Law of Anime Physics:
Calming (Score:1)
I like this sound clip. It is calming to listen to, especially when repeated quietly in the background. Very calming.
I wish the web page would have more information about how it was created. Which frequencies were recorded? Was it AM, FM, or some other technique? How were the sound waves generated from the raw data? If anybody has the answers, please post them.
Super eurobeat from Avex and Konami unite in your DANCE!
Re:something-new-for-the-eyes dept (Score:1)
Re:Sounds of Space??? (Score:1)
Re:It sounds like ... (Score:1)
Re:Sounds of Space??? (Score:1)
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seumas.com
Re:Not necessarily (Score:1)
This means Frequency is directly related to the propagation time of the wave. A longer wave has a lower frequency in actuality; but that's relative to the propagation time for the wave. Any wave can look long if you analyze it under the right timing conditions.
Re:Mod this down (Score:1)
Seeka
Why is that offtopic? (Score:2)
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