The Terrifying Sounds Of Saturn
NASASaturn and its rings.
In 2018, NASA released an audio recording captured by its Cassini spacecraft of radio emissions between Saturn and its moon Enceladus, and the result was equal parts ethereal and eerie.
As reported by The Atlantic, the strange chorus is the result of plasma waves traveling between the two celestial bodies.
However, space lacks a crucial component that enables sound to travel: air.
Air carries sound because the sound waves produced by an object cause molecules within the air itself to vibrate, bumping into each other and continuing to do so until they run out of energy. That means that as long as you’re within that vibrating range of air molecules, you will hear the sound.
Plasma, the fourth state of matter, also creates waves. However, plasma waves are inaudible to the human ear.
Thankfully, the Cassini spacecraft was able to measure the plasma waves being exchanged between Saturn and Enceladus and transmit that data back to scientists at NASA, who then translated those waves into audible sound.
In other words, what we’re able to hear in the clip released by NASA isn’t necessarily what you would hear if you were to hover in the area between Saturn and its moon — but that doesn’t mean that no sound is being produced.
Just like bats and dolphins are able to communicate via sonar that is imperceptible to human ears, the plasma waves that exist throughout the cosmos are constantly making noise that we simply cannot hear.
Simply put, space isn’t quite the dark, quiet void we perceive it as.
And though Earth’s moon often appears like a glowing ball of Swiss cheese in the sky, keep in mind that not all moons across the universe are desolate, rocky spheres.
Per Astronomy magazine, Enceladus is a “geologically active world” about the size of Arizona and roughly half the distance from Saturn as the Moon is from Earth. Its surface is littered with plumes of water, carbon dioxide, salt, and organic compounds that shoot out from fissures on its south pole.
“Enceladus is this little generator going around Saturn, and we know it is a continuous source of energy,” said Ali Sulaiman of the University of Iowa. “Now we find that Saturn responds by launching signals in the form of plasma waves, through the circuit of magnetic field lines connecting it to Enceladus hundreds of thousands of miles away.”
Scientists may have been able to explain the source of Saturn’s weirdest sounds, but that doesn’t make them any less chilling to hear.
