Sounds of Space: The Solar System

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2015

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The previously silent world of outer space is getting noisier. In this audio tour of the Solar System, Dr Lucie Green listens in to the Sounds of Space. You may have heard the famous ‘singing comet’ – the soundscape created using measurements taken by the Rosetta spacecraft. Now, we bring you more sounds that have come from our exploration of the cosmos.

Some have been recorded by microphones on-board interplanetary spacecraft. Others have been sonified from space data, from lightning on Jupiter to vibrations inside the Sun. All of them reveal tantalising secrets that have inspired scientists, artists and musicians to help us understand the universe beyond.

Joining Lucie Green on this sonic journey through space are: Prof Tim O'Brien, associate director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, Honor Harger, executive director of the ArtScience museum in Singapore, Dr Andrew Pontzen from the Cosmology Research Group, University College London.

(Photo: Saturn By Voyager. Credit: Nasa)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading from the BBC.
0:03.0	The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use,
0:07.0	go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts. broadcasts. magnificent, silent. Or maybe not so silent.
0:25.0	If you close your eyes and listen with the right equipment,
0:31.0	there's a lot to hear.
0:33.2	I'm Dr Lucy Green and over the next two episodes of Discovery from BBC World Service,
0:38.2	I'll be taking you on a Sonic journey across the universe,
0:41.8	a trip through space and sound.
0:45.0	You can have sounds in space because space is not actually totally devoid of gas and what sound is is it's a sort of ripple
0:56.6	coming through gas or in our case air and then it's picked up by your ear and so
1:01.0	you hear a sound so because space isn't actually a perfect vacuum, there's absolutely no
1:06.3	reason why there can't be sounds made in space. Some of the sounds that we hear are really sounds,
1:15.0	and some of them that we hear are actually what are called sonifications,
1:19.0	where we take data, it could be radio observations of space or x-ray observations of things in space, and then you take that information and you transform it into a sound.
1:29.0	Listening to the universe has inspired and informed scientists, artists and musicians.
1:36.0	Over the next half an hour, all the noises and music you'll hear have come from our exploration of space.
1:45.0	Some have been recorded by microphones on board
1:47.8	interplanatory spacecraft.
1:49.9	Others have been detected by telescopes
1:52.0	and sped up until their frequency is tuned to our ears.
1:56.0	The rest are sonified x-rays, space plasma, or radio waves that reveal tantalizing secrets about the universe that our eyes can't see.
2:06.0	Our journey begins at the heart of our cosmic neighborhood with the nuclear powerhouse that lies at the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.