Transcript
Dallas Taylor (0:00)
Hey listeners. You might have noticed, but we've updated all of our episode titles. We kept some of the originals, but added more context to help you discover or rediscover great stories. After this episode, take a scroll. You might find something you missed or an old favorite worth sharing. If you do, tap, share and send it to a friend or family member. Thanks. As a dad and a business owner, my time is very limited, so cooking a healthy meal from scratch, that's at least like 20 to 60 minutes. But with Factor, I get fresh, nutritious meals ready in just five eat smart with Factor. Get started@factormeals.com Factorpodcast and use Code Factor podcast to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping. That's Code Factor podcast at factormeals.com Factorpodcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. You're listening to 20,000 Hz. Hi, I'm Dallas Taylor. As a sound fanatic, one of my pet peeves is the common misunderstanding about data sonification. That's when scientists turn information like numbers or measurements into sound. The creepy soundscape you're hearing right now is a sonification of radio emissions from the auroras on Saturn, which are similar to the northern lights here on Earth. These signals were captured by the Cassini spacecraft in 2002. But here's the radio waves are not sound. They're a type of energy, like x rays or microwaves, and they don't create vibrations in the air like sound does. In this case, these waves were oscillating between 30,000 and 80,000 cycles per second. To make it audible, researchers mapped this data onto a set of lower frequencies, kind of like slowing down a really high pitched whistle until it's within our hearing range. They also sped up time, playing 27 minutes of data in just 73 seconds. That way we can hear these patterns more easily. Now, people send me clips like this all the time and say, hey, listen to what Saturn sounds like. And while I love their enthusiasm, I always want to make it clear this is not what you would hear if you were floating near Saturn with a microphone. There's no air, so there's no sound. But when we understand sonification for what it is, it becomes an incredible way to make scientific data accessible and even beautiful. This story comes from NASA's Curious Universe. Here's Patti Boyd, an astrophysicist and host of the show.
Robert Alexander (2:44)
I have a question for you. What does space sound like?
Mike Hartinger (2:53)
We'll see things like material from the surface of the sun that wants to extend Outward into interplanetary space. But then it gets caught On a magnetic field line and pulled back down to the surface of the sun. Every now and then, these magnetic field lines Will kind of get twisted up, and they'll no longer be able to keep their hold to the surface of the sun, and they'll go flying out into space. And when this happens, when we get something Like a coronal mass ejection, the amount of material that leaves the sun Is oftentimes greater Than the entire mass of the planet Earth.
