Cassini Reveals Saturn's Eerie-sounding Radio Emissions

[Caution]

Cassini Reveals Saturn's Eerie-sounding Radio Emissions

Saturn's radio emissions could be mistaken for a Halloween sound track.

That's how University of Iowa researchers Bill Kurth and Don Gurnett describe their recent findings in the July 23 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Their paper is based on data from the Cassini spacecraft radio and plasma wave science instrument, which was built at the University of Iowa under Gurnett's direction. The study investigates sounds that are not just eerie, but also descriptive of a phenomenon similar to Earth's northern lights.

"All of the structures we observe in Saturn's radio spectrum are giving us clues about what might be going on in the source of the radio emissions above Saturn's auroras," says Kurth. "We believe that the changing frequencies are related to tiny radio sources moving up and down along Saturn's magnetic field lines."

The radio emissions, called Saturn kilometric radiation, are generated along with Saturn's auroras, or northern and southern lights. Because the Cassini instrument has higher resolution compared to a similar instrument on the Voyager spacecraft, it has provided more detailed information on the spectrum and its variability of the radio emissions. Samples of the resulting sounds can be found at http:/​/​www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/​cassini/​ or at http:/​/​www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/​space-audio/​.

The terrestrial cousins of Saturn's radio emissions were first reported in 1979 by Gurnett, who used an instrument onboard the International Sun Earth Exporer-1 spacecraft in Earth orbit. Kurth says that despite their best efforts, scientists still haven't agreed on a theory to fully explain the phenomenon. He adds that they will get another chance to solve the radio emission puzzle beginning in mid-2008 when Cassini will fly close to, or possibly even through, the source region at Saturn.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050726074644.htm

[Cush]

1. freaky, sounds like a 50's Sci Fi flick

[htuttle]

9. Saturn is apparently a cosmic theremin!

[beam me up scottie]

2. OMC !!!

That is the coolest thing !

[walkon]

4. Really a tape

of Rove snoring played backward!

[beam me up scottie]

7. *snort !

Hopefully his bunkie in prison won't mind too much !

[frankly_fedup2]

3. We need the Voyager to continue on it's trip into another universe

more than we need to keep funding the space shuttle. Today's trip is only to prove that the shuttle can still go out and come back. I heard one astronaut talking about the fact that there is no reason to continue to go up to the space station. The only tests they continue to do are tests on weightlessness.

However, The Voyager, as reported on the news a month or two ago, is getting ready to leave OUR universe and go into another one. That OTHER universe could answer a lot of questions regarding our own universe and even life itself.

One senator (sorry, cannot remember) was talking about how Voyager had all that information that was placed on it regarding our planet, men and women, procreation, languages of the Earth, and an invitation to Earth, etc.

I'm serious, this senator said that we should have thought about what we were putting on Voyager before we sent it out into OUR universe with all the information regarding our planet. He stated that if there is any other form of life out in the vastness of space, and that form of life was hostile, we were all but inviting them to come to our planet and destroy it. Really, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

NASA as well as the American People need to fight to keep Voyager going. It's as if they are afraid of what they might find??????

[Caution]

6. Voyager

Yes we should continue to fund voyager, but we should also continue to fund the space shuttle until a replacement is found.

Just FYI, Voyager is not going to another "universe" (I'm guessing you meant "solar system" here) nor is it going anywhere near another star (solar system) any time in the near or distant future.

The reason NASA no longer intends to fund the mission is because Voyager is headed to a region of space which is basically empty. They may find interesting things out there which is why I believe funding is still important but Voyager is now very old technology and will not provide much useful science.

As for this Senator, the chances of another race finding Voyager before they notice all of the constant traffic being broadcast from our planet every day is unbelievably remote. Anything an alien race could learn from Voyager could more easily be learned from the Discovery Channel.

As far as being afraid of what they might find, you are reaching here. Voyager isn't likely to find much of anything which is why it is being cut off, NASA has enough trouble with its budget than to try to justify funding something like Voyager.

[htuttle]

8. At the fastest speed of any human-constructed vehicle,...

...Which I think is currently the recent 'Deep Space One' probe (which has an ion engine), it would take something like 10-15,000 years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Way longer than any one civilization has ever existed on Earth, in any case. We have a LONG way to go technologically before we're able to leave our Sol system on a regular basis.

I would be more interested in what Voyager might find between the stars on its way, but it doesn't have many instruments still working (and didn't have too many sophisticated ones in the first place). We assume it's 'empty space' between the stars, but there are a lot of measurements we can't make until we actually send something out there.

[HeeBGBz]

5. Wow, that's some spooky sounds

It does sound like some old B sci-fi flick.

[AX10]

10. kick

[SteppingRazor]

11. Neat, but take it with a grain of salt...

"Time on this recording has been compressed such that 73 seconds corresponds to 27 minutes, or, the recording is at 22x real time. Since the frequencies of these emissions are well above the audio frequency range, we have shifted them downward by a factor of 44."

So, what you're hearing has been manipulated. The actual emissions have been sped up, and the frequency has been brought down into the range of human hearing.

[Pepperbelly]

12. it sounds a lot like lightning on hi-band.

Which, btw, when you are far at sea can sound really creepy.