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Topic: The sounds of Saturn
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venus_man
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6131
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posted 26 July 2005 10:26 AM
It kind of sounds like a soundtrack from the Star Trek or some sort of spooky alien movie. This however is real: quote: The Cassini spacecraft began detecting these radio emissions in April 2002, when Cassini was 374 million kilometers (234 million miles) from the planet, using the Cassini radio and plasma wave science instrument. The radio and plasma wave instrument has now provided the first high resolution observations of these emissions, showing an amazing array of variations in frequency and time. The complex radio spectrum with rising and falling tones, is very similar to Earth's auroral radio emissions. These structures indicate that there are numerous small radio sources moving along magnetic field lines threading the auroral region. Time on this recording has been compressed, so that 73 seconds corresponds to 27 minutes. Since the frequencies of these emissions are well above the audio frequency range, we have shifted them downward by a factor of 44.
This is an audio file of radio emissions from Saturn
From: outer space | Registered: Jun 2004
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skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478
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posted 26 July 2005 11:41 AM
Far out. That really is lovely.Can someone explain to me: quote: These structures indicate that there are numerous small radio sources moving along magnetic field lines threading the auroral region.
What is meant by radio sources? What would a radio source be?
From: gone | Registered: May 2001
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aRoused
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1962
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posted 27 July 2005 10:30 AM
More broadly, skdadl, anything that causes an electron to change energy levels will cause it to emit that energy as a photon/electromagnetic wave. If it has energy in a certain band, it'll have a wavelength in the radio region of the EM spectrum (if it had higher energy, it would be emitted as infrared, visible light, UV, X-rays, etc, again depending on the energy).So electrons hitting Saturn's magnetic field could be one source, but events within Saturn could also potentially produce radio emissions. Reading the article, however, I see that the sounds you're hearing are in fact coming from the auroral radio emissions that FO described above. Jupiter and the Sun produces radio emissions that can be picked up by a backyard telescope. Presumably one could do with with Saturn as well. The science and technology museum in Ottawa used to have a set of earphones where you could listen to signals picked up by a Canadian radio telescope. Scared the pants off me, they did, and not just because you were hearing them in a darkened room.
From: The King's Royal Burgh of Eoforwich | Registered: Dec 2001
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skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478
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posted 28 July 2005 05:38 PM
Mama! Y'know, it's funny: I can follow these threads when you give me the sounds, but the sights really make me feel dizzy. I've felt that about other space threads: the pictures scare me. Often I quit looking when I see that the pics are too good. Sorry: brief outbreak of private neurosis. I like the sounds, though. And I like the idea of them. I once heard a Zen physicist (well, actually, I think he did Tao?) tell a story about a great physicist who had speculated that there was only one electron in the entire universe, moving very fast. I like that thought too.
From: gone | Registered: May 2001
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forum observer
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7605
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posted 29 July 2005 12:07 AM
Often I quit looking when I see that the pics are too good. Sorry: brief outbreak of private neurosis.You have to understand what the sun signifies as it ejects solar flares. Sometimes using Soho the predictive feature can be of value when disruption of communications becomes fuzzy. This gives us advance warnings. The Electron I call it, a Shakespearean Quandry?
Look under E=mc2....third panel, scrolling down You see, us humans try and mimic the sun "in particle creation" and the resulting collisions? Well At LHC, the other aspect of this determination, is vital, in recognition of the Auger experiments. This happens all around us now. Really quite natural. So are microstate blackholes [ 29 July 2005: Message edited by: forum observer ]
From: It is appropriate that plectics refers to entanglement or the lack thereof, | Registered: Dec 2004
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