NASA Music Out of This World

Koyaanisqatsi writes "With detection instruments on NASA's Voyagers, Galileo, Cassini and other spacecraft, University of Iowa physicist Dr. Don Gurnett recorded waves that course through outer space. Gurnett converted the plasma waves into sounds which inspired a 10-movement musical composition called "Sun Rings." Sample the sounds from Galileo, Voyager and Cassini. (Full Story)"

Great

[Anonymous Coward]

Now we'll get sued by the Alien RIAA.

I doubt they will sue

[Subcarrier]

I thought aliens like KaZaAm -- preferably on a planetary scale.

Anyway, they really should rethink their whole business model. Going after their customers with beam weapons is just plain stupid.

In space...

[Anonymous Coward]

no one can hear your 10-movement musical composition

That's odd

[Salsaman]

I played one of the wavs backwards, and I could distinctly hear the words "European Space Agency engineers are weenies".

and then

[chamenos]

we'll finally find out where celine dion really came from, won't we? and as usual, canada would be really sorry about all the inconvenience they caused. mmhmm...

kthxbye~!

Re:and then

[__aaaaxm1522]

Sorry for the inconvenience? That's just something our politicians tell yours. We've been using the US as a toxic waste dump for bad talent for *years* and you people haven't caught on yet! Celine Dion, Alanis Morrisette, William Shatner, Lorne Greene, and our latest triumph, April Lavigne!

If it wasn't for you guys, we'd have to put up with them here. The US is the Botany Bay of the Canadian Entertainment Industry!

Avril*

[SHEENmaster]

She really is punk! The press release says so!

Re:Avril*

[amentia]

You're a skater. Not a punk. Don't pretend! [nekorevolution.net]

Recursive!

[Knacklappen]

Now you can include the posting of above list to above list, which of course is recursive and will blow the minds of the (already mindless) trolls to pieces... POW!! Mission accomplished...

10-movement musical composition called "Sun Rings.

[3-State Bit]

insert something about holst.

"Sun Rings" and Beebopterismo

[blincoln]

Riley listened carefully to some crackling and squealing patterns from the magnetic field the Galileo spacecraft discovered surrounding Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. "It sounded to me like a voice saying, 'beebopterismo,' so that's the starting point for one of the movements," he said.

I think someone's been reading a little too much of the Ringworld series.

Too much LDS in the sixties

[Qrlx]

Was it just me, or did the recording of the spacecraft's exodus from Ganymede's magnetic pole sound a lot like those underwater whale recordings?

At the beginning, I think that was Qo'noS exploding or something. Spilled tea all over my tunic.

Re:Too much LDS in the sixties

[nounderscores]

nope, it's just that damned alien probe [allscifi.com] back again...

Thats not space

[Anonymous Coward]

thats just

cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp

The best part

[jukal]

...with stories from space like this, is that they could as well let you download a sample made of the scientist's toilet experience, and no-one would notice any difference. Anyway, listening to this is very fancy....because... you know... it's from space - it must be awesome!

bah.

[Inominate]

Well it beats the silent "music".
But not by much.

astronomical percussion music

[hanwen]

Reminds me of a piece by Circus S, called Pulsar. It's a piece for 6 percussion players inspired by the sounds made by pulsar signals.

See the circus S [circus-s.de] site.

(Oh, actually, the composer is called
Gérard Grisey and the piece Le Noir de l'Etoile (1989/90))

OT: "Full story" link

[jjkivilu]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a "Full Story" link such as the one in the end of parent scoop, but along with the "Read more..." link & others. The story submitters could have an optional URL field on the submit page to fill, if the story clearly has a main URL (like most of them do). Just an idea.

some crackling and squealing patterns

[techNETia]

Riley listened carefully to some crackling and squealing patterns from the magnetic field the Galileo spacecraft discovered surrounding Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. "It sounded to me like a voice saying, 'beebopterismo,' [...]

This guy should come over to the playground in my neighbourhood, he'll be able to record a lot of music! Beebopterismo's, hiphopterismo's, as much as he likes, and not to forget... the swing!!

Seems like...

[insomaniac]

...in space everybody can hear you squeek. ;)

Does anyone else...

[Eythian]

...hear the aliens saying something about 'going to pick up L. Ron and his mates' in that when they play it backwards? Man, they're going to be pissed when they find that he's dead.

A CD has been out for years.

[taliver]

I have a CD of the NASA voyager probe recordings. Sounds interesting at first, and then gets boring. The CD is 50 minutes long or so, and has a warning about the dangers of using heavy machinery while listening, since it puts people to sleep.

Anyway, some sounds like whales, other parts sound like choirs from the movie 2001.

Re:A CD has been out for years.

[Monkelectric]

I think you're refering to "Symphony of the planets" ? I have one of the discs as well and granted its not much to listen to as far as music goes. But its GREAT for relaxtion. It's my all time favorite chill out album.

Good Taste

[esthanya]

At least someone at NASA had the good taste to hire Kronos. If anyone can recreate those sounds, they can. I wonder when the CD will be avalible for public consumption... Esth

Okay, I just don't get why this is interesting...

[iiioxx]

I listened to the samples from the various missions, and it sounds like any other radio noise you would get by playing with the tuning knob on an old radio. Some other sounds were very similar to the noises you can make by dragging your finger nail along a guitar string. I was greatly underwhelmed. I guess some people are just like, "if it comes from space it's cool". But it just sounded like noise to me.

Re:Okay, I just don't get why this is interesting.

[Peter T Ermit]

It's not interesting, at least to me. Every time NASA gets an oscillating signal of some sort, they convert it to sound waves and play it, hoping that the press mistakes it for something profound. They're seldom disappointed.

If..

[Frank of Earth]

.. Lance made it into space, we could have had a quartet.

Sample the sounds from Galileo, Voyager and Cassini and now featuring Lance Bass!

mp3

[misterhaan]

dude, i had the mp3s of this a month ago!

It's been done

[Robotech_Master]

Dr. Fiorella Terenzi [fiorella.com], radio astronomer and musician, has already done this sort of thing. (Plus, as her collaboration with Thomas Dolby ("Quantum Mechanic") proves, she also has a great singing voice. :)

Re:It's been done

[Monkelectric]

and you didnt mention shes a fucking babe!! have you seen the insert on "Gate" (to the minds eye)?. A gorgeous geek diva, dosen't get any better.

Ham Radio

[Servo]

As a kid, I used to take a ham radio (I forget what wavelengh, its been a while) and tune it to odd frequencies that produced weird rythmic pulses. It was probably just interference from nearby electronics, but it was fun to listen to.

Those sound bites remind me of what I used to listen to as a kid. Music to my ears!

sound of windows

[misterhaan]

well, at least this [uiowa.edu] sounds better than when i decided to translate the windows binaries into sound . . .

Previous Story

[gorgon]

Slashdot posted an earlier story [slashdot.org] on this in July. Its amusing what some people can use for inspiration.

Kronos Quartet

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I'd just like to say as a physics major at the University of Iowa and part of the Society of Physics Students that we are going to the performance tonight where the music is being played. It's called the Kronos Quartet and there wil be a meeting with the sound engineer of Hancher Auditorium before the show for all ticket holders in the Green Room.

This was down thirty years ago...

[FFFish]

....by Tomita. He sampled radio waves from a number of stars and used those as the base waveforms for some Moog synthesizer compositions.

Danger, NASA at work

[Animats]

Someone referred to NASA as the "world's largest sheltered workshop". Now I understand why.

NASA had a huge brain drain in the early 1970s, when Apollo wound down, and never recovered. It's sad.

Whale songs?

[Xpilot]

It's actually whale songs coming from an alien probe. We've got to send Captain Kirk back in time to get 2 humpback whales to reply. Oh wait they're not extinct yet.

Your tax dollars at work

[janolder]

Is it just me or is this an obvious misuse of taxpayer money? Sure, this may have artistic value to some minority - but where is the scientific relevance of this endeavor that would justify spending your tax dollars on it?

As long as we haven't covered the more important aspects of governmental responsibilities, like health insurance and flying to Mars, I'm deeply troubled by this - especially in view of the re-started deficit spending of the US.

Science is about discovery

[willpost]

"Basic science has always worked on the fact that we don't know the answer, hence we ask the question without having the answer."

Even if discoveries like sounds in space are never applied, it gets the public interested in science. It might even inspire young minds to accomplish great works someday. Such was the case of a simple beeping noise in 1957 from Sputnik.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit2002101 0. html
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit200 21017. html

Noise vs. Signal

[tomem]

NASA spends about 1-2% of it's budget in an effort to communicate its activities to the general public or students. This is considered money well-spent, since it is the public that has paid for exploration of space.

Just as we cannot see outside the visible spectrum, we cannot hear plasma sound waves, which are mainly detected by electromagnetic antennae. But these sounds are just as informative about what is going on in our solar system as the Gamma, Xray or UV images that are brought back from space.

For example, there is a steady rumble from the roiling solar atmosphere, which expands supersonically throughout the solar system. And when a spacecraft crosses a shock wave (upstream of all the planets), there is a huge sonic boom. Lightening and auroras produce a wide variety of sounds.

So try to think of these sounds as having been recorded in the GREAT outdoors, and ask yourself what you might be hearing. One person's noise is another person's signal!

More space sounds

[willpost]

http://www.spacesounds.com/ [spacesounds.com]