NASA makes you listen to the sound that travels between the Earth and the Sun

NASA allows us to hear the sound that travels between the Earth and the Sun and it takes willing ears to try and spot interesting features.

It is often believed that silence reigns in space as long as sound cannot propagate there. But this is not entirely true. there NASAwhich recently launched a citizen science project called Harp, has been revealed A symphonic recordingA symphony produced by the sound waves that propagate between the Earth and the Sun, “a cacophonous operetta depicting the dramatic relationship between the Earth and the Sun,” according to a press release from the US space agency.

NASA makes us hear the sound that spreads between the Earth and the Sun

First of all, you need to know one thing. “The particles of the atmosphere carry the sound: so we can hear the noise on Earth, because there is an atmosphere, but on the Moon or in space, there is none, and therefore there are not enough particles to carry the sound wave,” explains Gil Dawidowicz, vice president of the Astronomical Society at France. Also, if we can hear sound in this satellite recording of the Themis mission, it is because it is not really spread between the Earth and the Sun, from a purely spatial point of view, but is audible more simply “around the Earth”.

Concretely, in the very high atmosphere of the Earth, there are solar particles, of high energy, which meet with the magnetic song of the Earth, and vibrate the lines of force of the magnetic field that surrounds the planet. This vibration, which is somewhat similar to that produced by a guitarist or The harpist plucks his strings, which scientists have recorded at sound wavelengths that the human ear cannot hear,” he continues. In other words, these are very low frequencies that were converted by NASA scientists for us humans to hear and decipher.

To the ear, one would think he was hearing some kind of wave or at least a sound coming from an aquatic environment. “It’s not surprising that it gives off this wave noise since we’re talking about a sound wave that oscillates over time, and so it’s not linear: so it inevitably gives off that wave noise,” Gil Dawidowicz explains.

And it needs willing ears to try and spot interesting features

And since HARP (“Solar Physics Named: Resonance in Plasma”) is a participatory project, NASA is inviting volunteers to stretch their ears to try and discover the intriguing properties of these very special waves. Who knows, this could lead to important discoveries about the environment of the Earth and the sun. “Each participant will react in a unique way to the vibrations in space. What one person fails to see can instantly attract another. We want people to discover things we haven’t thought of before, or that computer algorithms can’t detect. This is how discoveries are made.” !” specifies, excitedly, Emmanuel Masongsong, a professor at UCLA and a member of the Harp team.

“Especially since human hearing is much less developed than that of some animals such as dogs, cats or cetaceans for example. They have receivers that are more sensitive than us to certain sound frequencies, animals hear ultrasound for example. But we are more limited. Therefore this project It makes it possible to explain that some things in nature are not perceptible thanks to our human senses. But this does not mean that we are useless. If you are curious, if you would like to participate, Follow this link (in English).