Space
Radio waves from space

Strange Extraterrestrial Radio Noises

Listen to strange radio noises from space.

1981 true-color photo of Saturn taken from Voyager 2 Saturn Radio Emissions
Cassini is a joint U.S.-European mission to Saturn and its moon Titan. It was launched October 15, 1997. One of the major scientific instruments aboard is RPWS. RPWS is gathering data for Radio and Plasma Wave Science investigations.

(Colors in this photo of Saturn are very close to the colors that would be seen by a humun observer viewing Saturn from the same distance.)

Sounds of 50 to 500 kHz radio emissions RPWS has sent back to earth from Saturn have been compressed in time in this recording so that one second corresponds to one planet rotation.

(Audio stream courtesy of NASA, JPL and The University of Iowa)

 

True-color view of JupiterRadio Storms on Jupiter
Jupiter is a powerful source of odd 25 MHz radio noises that can be received from Earth. The signals have a couple different forms called L Bursts and S Bursts.

(This image of Jupiter is a true-color mosaic of Jupiter made from 27 red, green and blue image-fields that were components of nine color photographs taken on December 29, 2000, by a narrow-angle camera onboard the Cassini spacecraft. The Cassini camera recorded more colors than a human eye can see. However, the colors in this mosaic are rendered to appear almost exactly as they would appear to a human the same distance from Jupiter.)

Build your own radio telescope and receive signals from Jupiter directly.

Jupiter L Bursts sound a little like waves crashing on a beach.

(Audio stream courtesy of NASA)

Jupiter S Bursts have this rapid-fire popping sound.

(Audio stream courtesy of NASA)

However, if S Bursts are recorded and played back with a 128:1 slowdown ratio the result is these eerie whistling noises.

(Audio stream courtesy of NASA)

Earth's Magnetosphere also Produces
Interesting Radio Waves Called Chorus
Earth's magnetosphere

This is an example of the Earth's magnetosphere Chorus recorded by Stephen P. McGreevy during a severe magnetic storm over Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, on February 21, 1994.

(Audio stream courtesy of NASA)


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