NASA has recorded eerie “sounds” coming from one of Jupiter’s moons, and the audio is like something straight out of a 1950s science fiction movie.
This includes chirping, high-pitched whistling and hums. The noise also appears to speed up and build to a crescendo before mysteriously dropping.
“It’s not scifi. It’s the real deal,” NASA officials posted on Facebook.
The radio waves were recorded as NASA’s Juno mission “recently flew through the magnetic field of Ganymede, one of the gas giant’s many moons.”
Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton said the audio track was created when Juno’s instruments tuned “in to electric and magnetic radio waves produced in Jupiter’s magnetosphere,” according to a news release. The frequency was then “shifted into the audio range,” so we could “hear” Ganymede, scientists said.
“This soundtrack is just wild enough to make you feel as if you were riding along as Juno sails past Ganymede for the first time in more than two decades,” Bolton said in the release.
“If you listen closely, you can hear the abrupt change to higher frequencies around the midpoint of the recording, which represents entry into a different region in Ganymede’s magnetosphere.”
The radio wave emissions, collected June 7, are considered one of the mission’s highlights, NASA said. The spacecraft “was within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of the moon’s surface and traveling at a relative velocity of 41,600 mph (67,000 kph).”
Analysis of the recording is ongoing, and some NASA scientists suspect the frequency changes might be due to the recorder “passing from the nightside to the dayside of Ganymede.”
NASA’s Facebook post announcing the recording has racked up 19,000 reactions and more than 800 comments, including some people who quoted the Bible (Isaiah 40:26). Meanwhile, the actual audio was posted on YouTube and has gotten more than 250,000 listens since Dec. 16.
“Listen. Sounds like a Beatles album,” Rick Tosches wrote on Facebook, referencing the White Album track “Revolution 9.”
“Once again, Star Trek was right!” Michelle Church Guzinski posted.
“I could be completely wrong but the sound seems to have a certain mathematical sequence to it. I have a math degree,” Hank Mclaughlin wrote.
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