Star Sounds

[neonlyte]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7687286.stm

I wouldn't have believed this was possible, but here it is. What I find amazing is the harmonics, not a bum note in them.

 

[epiphany65]

God uses Pro Tools.

 

[john-the-author]

Fucking amazing!

 

[Liar]

I've heard sounds like this in a zillion sci-fi movies and science shows. I always though it was just something some audio tech dude made up because it sounded, well, spacey and stuff.

 

[Guest]

that was very cool... thanks

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Okay, they're not giving us the whole story here.

These can't be the actual sounds of the stars. Everyone knows sound doesn't carry in space. These must be some other frequency of radiation converted into audible frequencies we can then hear. They probably picked a sci-fi sounding frequency on purpose.

Still, it's very cool.

I was just thinking about sono-chemistry the other day, the way the sound of a spoon stirring a cup of instant hot chocolate changes as the chocolate dissolves. The pitch of the spoon against the walls of the cup gets lower as the viscosity of the liquid changes and the speed of sound in the liquid drops. Swedish scientists developed a way to measure concentration of solids in liquids by the pitch of a tuning fork in the solution.

 

[fieryjen]

I want to know exactly what it is they're converting to sound. Why is it that articles about science discoveries never go into details anymore? Or even hint at the actual important part?

 

[Equinoxe]

If you go to the link on the right side of the page for "The Jodcast" and listen to "The Sounds of Space", they explain the phenomenon in greater detail.

Why is it that articles about science discoveries never go into details anymore? Or even hint at the actual important part?

I can't recall a time when science journalism wasn't vague, misleading, and ill focused; I suspect that it is because the writers don't actually understand what they are reporting on.

 

[3113]

I was just thinking about sono-chemistry the other day, the way the sound of a spoon stirring a cup of instant hot chocolate changes as the chocolate dissolves. The pitch of the spoon against the walls of the cup gets lower as the viscosity of the liquid changes and the speed of sound in the liquid drops.

But how good does the chocolate taste? That's what really matters.

 

[jomar]

I've heard sounds like this in a zillion sci-fi movies and science shows. I always though it was just something some audio tech dude made up because it sounded, well, spacey and stuff.

That's what I thought when I heard it.

The National Enquirer will have a story about stars talking to each other, and not just in Hollywood!

 

[neonlyte]

I want to know exactly what it is they're converting to sound. Why is it that articles about science discoveries never go into details anymore? Or even hint at the actual important part?

Here is another article: http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08102425
seems they are measuring asteroseismology using a telescope in space. The box top right gives a slightly better explanation than the main text.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

"When looking at stars, COROT is able to detect 'starquakes,' acoustical waves generated deep inside a star that send ripples across a star's surface, altering its brightness. The exact nature of the ripples can allow astronomers to calculate the star's mass, age and even chemical composition. This technique is known as asteroseismology and ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has been taking similar observations of the Sun for years. (c) CNES"

Even so, I doubt the "acoustical" waves that go through a star are going to be in the audible frequency. A star's made of plasma, a soup of stripped atomic nuclei and electrons at incredibly hot temperatures. We'd have no more chance of hearing waves in that than we could of hearing waves in flame. They must modulate these waves down into the audible frequency range.

(Actually, while checking this out, I just learned that our sun does generate bursts of ultrasound, which really isn't that surprising, the surface of the sun being such a wild and tumultuous place.)

I know NASA did the same thing with solar radiation streaming into the rings of Saturn a while ago. The collision re-emits radiation in the radio frequency range, which is of course electromagnetic radiation and inaudible, but if you modulate the frequency by slowing the waves down a million times or so and then play the resulting waveform through a speaker, you get this truly eerie music. I'm pretty sure these star songs are EMF radiation slowed down and played through a speaker.

You can hear Saturn's music here. It's very creepy. This actually 27 minutes of voyager (I think) flying by the rings of Saturn compressed into 27 seconds. The sounds are the particles in the solar wind caught in the magnetic field of Saturn.

And here's a site that compares the Sounds of Saturn to the sound track from "Forbidden Planet".

 

[Tehalelu]

If memory serves, in the late '70s, I called a number
sponsored by NASA and listened to a similar recording.
Anyone else remember that?..

 

[Xelebes]

"When looking at stars, COROT is able to detect 'starquakes,' acoustical waves generated deep inside a star that send ripples across a star's surface, altering its brightness. The exact nature of the ripples can allow astronomers to calculate the star's mass, age and even chemical composition. This technique is known as asteroseismology and ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has been taking similar observations of the Sun for years. (c) CNES"

Even so, I doubt the "acoustical" waves that go through a star are going to be in the audible frequency. A star's made of plasma, a soup of stripped atomic nuclei and electrons at incredibly hot temperatures. We'd have no more chance of hearing waves in that than we could of hearing waves in flame. They must modulate these waves down into the audible frequency range.

(Actually, while checking this out, I just learned that our sun does generate bursts of ultrasound, which really isn't that surprising, the surface of the sun being such a wild and tumultuous place.)

I know NASA did the same thing with solar radiation streaming into the rings of Saturn a while ago. The collision re-emits radiation in the radio frequency range, which is of course electromagnetic radiation and inaudible, but if you modulate the frequency by slowing the waves down a million times or so and then play the resulting waveform through a speaker, you get this truly eerie music. I'm pretty sure these star songs are EMF radiation slowed down and played through a speaker.

You can hear Saturn's music here. It's very creepy. This actually 27 minutes of voyager (I think) flying by the rings of Saturn compressed into 27 seconds. The sounds are the particles in the solar wind caught in the magnetic field of Saturn.

And here's a site that compares the Sounds of Saturn to the sound track from "Forbidden Planet".

What I noticed was the Shepperd's effect in the Doppler Effect, which creates those eerie tones. That is, as it approaches the rings the sound is deepening but as one disappears, a higher harmonic comes in to take it's effect.

 

[neonlyte]

I know NASA did the same thing with solar radiation streaming into the rings of Saturn a while ago. The collision re-emits radiation in the radio frequency range, which is of course electromagnetic radiation and inaudible, but if you modulate the frequency by slowing the waves down a million times or so and then play the resulting waveform through a speaker, you get this truly eerie music. I'm pretty sure these star songs are EMF radiation slowed down and played through a speaker.

You can hear Saturn's music here. It's very creepy. This actually 27 minutes of voyager (I think) flying by the rings of Saturn compressed into 27 seconds. The sounds are the particles in the solar wind caught in the magnetic field of Saturn.

And here's a site that compares the Sounds of Saturn to the sound track from "Forbidden Planet".

That's a creepy sound, I wish I knew enough about harmonics to know if the sounds were slowed to sound 'pleasing' of if the harmonic remains a constant regardless of speed of play.