Let's listen to

Earth's Song
Chorus Waves of Earth recorded

Credits:
+ Science@NASA
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
+ Van Allen Belts image courtesy of NASA
+ T. Benesch and J. Carns

Earth's Song
by Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia

Suspended in the dark cosmos, Earth sings to itself in a high-pitched chorus of chirps and beeps. This song is a product of very low frequency radio waves generated by lightning strikes or excited electrons zipping through the Van Allen Belts, two vast swaths of radiation surrounding Earth. While ham radio operators have long detected this eerie planetary sound using inexpensive receivers, the recent recording by specially designed antennas on NASA's twin Van Allen Probes is one of the clearest examples ever captured. But could Earth's chorus be a siren song? The probes are now on a quest to find out whether these radio waves might be powering up otherwise harmless electrons in the Van Allen Belts, turning them into "killer electrons" capable of damaging satellites and astronauts. Watch the videos to hear and learn more about this rare recording.

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11073

Credits:
+ Science@NASA
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
+ Van Allen Belts image courtesy of NASA
+ T. Benesch and J. Carns

Mice Galaxies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NGC 4676, or the Mice Galaxies, are two spiral galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices. About 290 million light-years distant, they have begun the process of colliding and merging. Their "mice" name refers to the long tails produced by tidal action—the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy—known here as a galactic tide. It is a possibility that both galaxies, which are members of the Coma Cluster, have experienced collision, and will continue colliding until they coalesce.

The colors of the galaxies are peculiar. In NGC 4676A a core with some dark markings is surrounded by a bluish white remnant of spiral arms. The tail is unusual, starting out blue and terminating in a more yellowish color, despite the fact that the beginning of each arm in virtually every spiral galaxy starts yellow and terminates in a bluish color. NGC 4676B has a yellowish core and two arcs; arm remnants underneath are bluish as well.

The galaxies were photographed in 2002 by the Hubble Space Telescope. In the background of the Mice Galaxies, there are over 3000 galaxies, at distances up to 13 billion light-years.

By contributors to Wikimedia projects

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The Mice Galaxies are a colliding pair of galaxies, that will eventually merge into a single galaxy. They’re located about 300 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. In this data sonification, scientists represented brightness with volume and pitch – brighter light is louder and lower pitched. The vertical position of objects in the image is used to control the pitch of sustained musical strings, and cymbals swell following the brightness of the galaxy cores. Listen for a cymbal crash played for the foreground star with diffraction spikes, too!

CREDIT
Please see the ALT-Text

2020 September 30

Sonified: Eagle Nebula Pillars
* Image Credit: NASA, ESA, & The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
* Sonification: NASA, CXC, SAO, K. Arcand, M. Russo & A. Santaguida

Explanation:
Yes, but have you ever experienced the Eagle Nebula with your ears ? The famous nebula, M16, is best known for the feast it gives your eyes, highlighting bright young stars forming deep inside dark towering structures. These light-years long columns of cold gas and dust are some 6,500 light-years distant toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). Sculpted and eroded by the energetic ultraviolet light and powerful winds from M16's cluster of massive stars, the cosmic pillars themselves are destined for destruction. But the turbulent environment of star formation within M16, whose spectacular details are captured in this combined Hubble (visible) and Chandra (X-ray) image, is likely similar to the environment that formed our own Sun. In the featured video, listen for stars and dust sounding off as the line of sonification moves left to right, with vertical position determining pitch.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200930.html

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These pillars of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula are regions of starbirth. The aptly named "Pillars of Creation" hide newborn stars in their wispy columns. Stretching roughly 4 to 5 light-years, the towers are a relatively small feature of the entire Eagle Nebula, which spans 70 by 55 light-years.

In the sonification, sounds are generated by moving horizontally across the image from left to right as seen in both visible and X-ray light. The vertical position of the recorded light controls the pitch. Particular attention is paid to the structure of the pillars, which can be heard as sweeps from low to high pitches and back.

RS Puppis
Pulsating RS Puppis, the brightest star in the image center, is some ten times more massive than our Sun and on average 15,000 times more luminous. In fact, RS Pup is a Cepheid variable star, a class of stars whose brightness is used to estimate distances to nearby galaxies as one of the first steps in establishing the cosmic distance scale. As RS Pup pulsates over a period of about 40 days, its regular changes in brightness are also seen along its surrounding nebula delayed in time, effectively a light echo. Using measurements of the time delay and angular size of the nebula, the known speed of light allows astronomers to geometrically determine the distance to RS Pup to be 6,500 light-years, with a remarkably small error of plus or minus 90 light-years. An impressive achievement for stellar astronomy, the echo-measured distance also more accurately establishes the true brightness of RS Pup, and by extension other Cepheid stars, improving the knowledge of distances to galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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RS Puppis is a glittering star 200 times larger than our Sun and wreathed with dust reflecting starlight. Located about 6,500 light-years away, this star rhythmically brightens and dims over a six-week cycle. In this sonification, scientists represent data in the image as sound for a new, festive way of experiencing RS Puppis. Pitch is assigned based on direction from the center; as the circle travels inward, points at the top of the circle are mapped to higher notes and points near the bottom are mapped to lower notes.
[...]
More information in Alt-Text

CREDIT
NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain); Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble); Sonification: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

2020 December 16

Sonified: The Matter of the Bullet Cluster
* Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO
* Optical: NASA/STScI, Magellan/U.Arizona
* Lensing Map: NASA/STScI, ESO WFI, Magellan/U.Arizona
* Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

Explanation:
What's the matter with the Bullet Cluster? This massive cluster of galaxies (1E 0657-558) creates gravitational lens distortions of background galaxies in a way that has been interpreted as strong evidence for the leading theory: that dark matter exists within. Different analyses, though, indicate that a less popular alternative -- modifying gravity-- could explain cluster dynamics without dark matter, and provide a more likely progenitor scenario as well. Currently, the two scientific hypotheses are competing to explain the observations: it's invisible matter versus amended gravity. The duel is dramatic as a clear Bullet-proof example of dark matter would shatter the simplicity of modified gravity theories. The featured sonified image is a Hubble/Chandra/Magellan composite with red depicting the X-rays emitted by hot gas, and blue depicting the suggested separated dark matter distribution. The sonification assigns low tones to dark matter, mid-range frequencies to visible light, and high tones to X-rays. The battle over the matter in the Bullet cluster is likely to continue as more observations, computer simulations, and analyses are completed.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201216.html

2002 October 3

V838 Mon: Mystery Star

A leading candidate for the most mysterious star found in recent times is variable star V838 Monocerotis. At a distance of about 8,000 light-years, V838 Mon was discovered to be in outburst in January of this year. Initially thought to be a familiar type of classical nova, astronomers quickly realized that instead, V838 Mon may be a totally new addition to the astronomical zoo. Observations indicate that the erupting star transformed itself over a period of months from a small under-luminous star a little hotter than the Sun, to a highly-luminous, cool supergiant star undergoing rapid and complex brightness changes. The transformation defies the conventional understanding of stellar life cycles. A most notable feature of V838 Mon is the "expanding" nebula which now appears to surround it. Seen above in two separate images from the South African Astronomical Observatory's 1 meter telescope, the nebula is probably a light echo from shells of formerly unseen material lost by the star during its previous evolution. Light-years in diameter, the shells progressively reflect the light from V838 Mon's outbursts, providing an opportunity to look back at the history of this remarkable star's behaviour.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap021003.html

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This data sonification of the star V838 Monocerotis, or V838 Mon, shows two Hubble images taken almost seven months apart. A pulse of light from the central star illuminates clouds of dust and gas surrounding V838 Mon.

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/sonifications/

CREDIT
NASA, ESA, H.E. Bond (STScI) and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
* Sonification: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

[...]

Calving

Spectrogram of an iceberg calving (large section of iceberg breaking off) while adrift. The calving signal is short duration, broad band from 1-440 Hz generated by ice cracking and crack propagation. Audio sped up 3X normal.

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program

[...]

Iceberg Harmonic Tremor

Generated by iceberg in contact with the seafloor or other iceberg. This spectrogram has a fundamental frequency of 40 Hz, with a 40 Hz overtone spacing. Multiple overtones are visible in the spectrogram. Audio sped up 3X normal.

[...]

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program

[...]

Iceberg Grounding on Seafloor (Slow Down)

The sound slowly descends in frequency over about 7 minutes as the drifting iceberg slows to a stop once it comes in contact with the seafloor. Recorded signal sped up 16 times.

[...]

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program

"Well, that sounded like a concert in a cosmic stalactite cave and leads us back to the bottom of our earthly seas. This and the next three posts are about very special sounds from the depths of the oceans!"

2010 April 27

The Bloop: A Mysterious
Sound from the Deep Ocean
* Credit: NOAA, SOSUS
https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/
https://irp.fas.org/program/collect/sosus.htm

Explanation: What created this strange sound in Earth's Pacific Ocean? Pictured above is a visual representation of a loud and unusual sound, dubbed a Bloop, captured by deep sea microphones in 1997. In the above graph, time is shown on the horizontal axis, deep pitch is shown on the vertical axis, and brightness designates loudness. Although Bloops are some of the loudest sounds of any type ever recorded in Earth's oceans, their origin remains unknown. The Bloop sound was placed as occurring several times off the southern coast of South America and was audible 5,000 kilometers away. Although the sound has similarities to those vocalized by living organisms, not even a blue whale is large enough to croon this loud. The sounds point to the intriguing hypothesis that even larger life forms lurk in the unexplored darkness of Earth's deep oceans. A less imagination-inspiring possibility, however, is that the sounds resulted from some sort of iceberg calving. No further Bloops have been heard since 1997, although other loud and unexplained sounds have been recorded.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100427.html

Original icequake (bloop) sound:
The broad spectrum sounds recorded in the summer of 1997 are consistent with icequakes generated by large icebergs as they crack and fracture. NOAA hydrophones deployed in the Scotia Sea detected numerous icequakes with spectrograms very similar to “Bloop”. Recorded signal sped up 16 times.

[...]

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program