NASA's InSight Lander Captures First 'Sounds' of Wind On Mars (nbcnews.com) 40
NASA's InSight lander, which touched down on Mars less than two weeks ago, has recorded vibrations -- low-pitched, guttural rumblings -- caused by wind blowing across the science instruments on the spacecraft's deck. NBC News reports: Unaltered, these vibrations are barely audible, because they were recorded at a frequency of 50 hertz, at the low end of what the human ear can detect, according to Thomas Pike, the lead scientist for InSight's Short Period Seismometer, one of two instruments that picked up the subtle movements. NASA also released a sample of the same audio file that was shifted up about six octaves, to within a range audible to humans. That recording -- which at times sounds like a regular blustery day on Earth and other times has the muted, hollow quality reminiscent of being underwater -- would essentially be what a person would hear if they were sitting on the InSight lander on Mars, said Don Banfield, the science lead for InSight's air pressure sensor and a planetary scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. NASA believes the wind in the recordings was blowing at 10-15 miles per hour from northwest to southeast.
Re: (Score:2)
What is this sung to the tune of?
Baby It's Sandy Outside
No microphones on Mars (Score:1)
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Mars Polar Lander was the only Mars lander to have an actual microphone included in the instrumentation - and it was lost when it smashed into the surface.
We have audio from Titan, but not Mars. Seems a bit odd.
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We have audio from Titan, but not Mars. Seems a bit odd.
The Soviets got audio from Venus but I've never found it available for listening :( The closest I've come is that I found a graph of the recording online and in it they've even highlighted such sounds as the camera lens cover being removed with a tiny explosive and then the sound of it landing on the ground. The recording was made to measure wind speed and I'd be really curious to hear it.
Re:No microphones on Mars (Score:5, Informative)
The venus recording...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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The microphone was flown again on the Phoenix lander in 2007 as part of the Mars Descent Imager. However a potential data corruption problem had a small probability of causing an error with one of the gyros during the landing so the camera and microphone were never turned on.
The Mars 2020 Rover will have microphones aboard.
Why the quotes? (Score:1)
It's waves in a gas, that's real sound, not figurative.
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50Hz is certainly in the range of good speakers. It may be feeling more than heard when loud enough, but I'm pretty sure it's in the range of hearing.
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50Hz is certainly in the range of good speakers. It may be feeling more than heard when loud enough, but I'm pretty sure it's in the range of hearing.
it sure woke up my subs and made me jump in the process. I both heard and felt it. Pretty sure my neighbors did as well.
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Well within. The lowest note on a piano is 27.5 Hz. 50 Hz is almost an octave up from there.
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Recording the sound of the descent and landing sequence of an earth-built lander on another fracking planet would be pretty cool.
Wasting our time and vision reading your post is more of a senseless tragedy.
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What you are hearing is the vibration of the solar panel, measured by a seismometer.
Re: What about wind on Uranus? (Score:2)
It's still funnier than the homophobic slurs about Trump that infest all the stories here now.
Tasarkar (Score:1)
"Audible by human ears" (Score:1)