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April Clare Welsh
10 May 2023, 15:54

Listen to a NASA recording of the sun's plasma waves hitting Earth's magnetic field

Ultra-low-frequency waves can be heard "vibrating like the plucked strings of a harp"

HARP
Image via NASA

NASA has unveiled an audio recording of plasma waves hitting Earth's magnetic field.

According to NASA, charged particles called plasma emanate from the sun and erupt into ultra-low-frequency waves when they journey on the solar wind and collide with the Earth's magnetic field, "vibrating like the plucked strings of a harp".

A new NASA-funded citizen science project called HARP (Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas) has now sped up these plasma waves to convert them into audible "whistles, crunches, and whooshes", which you can listen to below. 

You can also join the HARP citizen team as a volunteer and check them out using an interactive tool while keeping an ear out for any unusual patterns.

“The process of identifying new features through deep listening feels a bit like treasure hunting,” said HARP team member Robert Alexander, from Auralab Technologies in Michigan. “I’m excited for individuals around the world to get a taste of this experience through the HARP project.”

“Data sonification provides human beings with an opportunity to appreciate the naturally occurring music of the cosmos,” said Alexander. “We're hearing sounds that are literally out of this world, and for me that's the next best thing to floating in a spacesuit," Alexander added.

Last year, NASA released an audio recording of a black hole to mark its Black Hole Week. The new "sonification" arrived a month after NASA unveiled a recording that revealed that Mars has two speeds of sound. 

In 2022, NASA scientist Ryan Vandermeulen, who works in the Ocean Ecology Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, teamed up with his computer programmer brother on an ambitious project to create music from the ocean’s colours.

“The process of identifying new features through deep listening feels a bit like treasure hunting,” said HARP team member Robert Alexander, from Auralab Technologies in Michigan. “I’m excited for individuals around the world to get a taste of this experience through the HARP project.”

“Data sonification provides human beings with an opportunity to appreciate the naturally occurring music of the cosmos,” said Alexander. “We're hearing sounds that are literally out of this world, and for me that's the next best thing to floating in a spacesuit," Alexander added.

Last year, NASA released an audio recording of a black hole to mark its Black Hole Week. The new "sonification" arrived a month after NASA unveiled a recording that revealed that Mars has two speeds of sound. 

In 2022, NASA scientist Ryan Vandermeulen, who works in the Ocean Ecology Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, teamed up with his computer programmer brother on an ambitious project to create music from the ocean’s colours.