Sounds of Space

So, for my first post on Technifornication we are going to explore space! Exciting right? I thought so too. We've long been told that space is a vacuum and things like sound and explosions can't exist because there is no oxygen or media for these things to exist. I know, I know... Star Wars had explosions, and it's only one of the best movies evar, and the pew-pew lasers had that awesome blaster sound; the real science says that those explosions are impossible. Ok, so where does this lead us to? It leads to the Radiation Belt Storm Probes orbiting the earth. These probes picked up radio waves that happen to be in the human range of hearing. Well, sadly these are not communications from other life forms, but rather a byproduct of the solar radiation hitting the Earth's magnetosphere. Basically the Sun bombards the Earth with solar radiation. The Earth's magnetic field helps to deflect a lot of that radiation. The result of that shield bouncing solar radiation off of us makes for some strange radio waves. Researchers in Iowa and NASA call this the 'chorus.' The sounds produced by this phenomenon is actually a little creepy, perfect ambient music for a sci-fi genre film. This chorus effect is not a new experience though, it has been observed for decades. Definitely follow the link for a more in depth look at the phenomenon and the actual audio recordings from the probes. I am an avid NASA geek, but my knowledge and technical skills with the universe is weak compared to the people that get paid to be smart about this stuff.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120913170726.htm

Image Credit: NASA