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NASA: Sounds from Space

Maggio 9, 2015 Mariangela Quarata
nasa.gov

nasa.gov

It is said that there is no sound in the space. Instead, it is not like this. Nasa, the American space Agency, has created specific instruments to capture the “voice” of the space. In fact, here the sound exists as electromagnetic vibrations. The Plasma Wave antenna has recorded these vibrations between 20 and 20000 Hz, then they were transformed into sound for ours ears. The US Agency started to have also its own channel on Soundcloud where there is a sound archive with wonderful recordings of phenomena from the Solar System, the roar of the Shuttle departure and famous phrases said during the missions. We have selected some of the most significant tracks to create our video:

  • Radio emissions collected by the space probe Cassini, launched on October 15, 1997 with the goal of studying the planet Saturn, its ring and its moons and went into orbit on July 1, 2004;
  • the first words said by Neil Armstrong on 20th July 1969 “The Eagle has landed” to announce the moon landing of the Apollo 11’s Eagle module;
  • storms of Jupiter recorded from space probes Voyager1 and Voyager2;
  • the phrase, which is of common use today: “Houston, we’ve had a problem” that astronaut Jack Swigert used during the Apollo 13 mission to the Mission Control to report that one of the four oxygen tanks exploded and the moon landing was not possible then;
  • the sounds produced by the interstellar plasma and collected again by the Voyager probes;
  • the original audio dating back to July 21, 1969 when Neil Armstrong during the landing on the moon said: “That’s one small step for a man one giant leap for mankind”;
  • the sound of the passage of the space probe Stardust near the comet Tempel1 on 14 February 2011;
  • the countdown preceding the last launch of the Space Shuttle for mission STS-135 on 8 July 2011;
  • the sound coming from the star KIC7671081B achieved thanks to the Kepler spacecraft launched in 2009.You will find many other files within the seven playlist that NASA has shared on its Soundcloud channel if you want to try the real feeling of traveling in space.Good listening … and have a nice trip!