NASA just released the song of summer.
In Gustav Holts 'The Planets', a sweeping composition of seven parts inspired by the Earth's neighbors in the solar system, Saturn's song begins gently, with the gentle hum of flutes. The melody, solemn and nostalgic, marches slowly forward. Then the woodwinds disappear and there's an explosion of sound, a frenzy of horns and ringing bubbles. Melancholy appears to decay in danger. The roar is short and the movement returns to its soft opening and closes the dreamy whispers of violins. The movement, first performed at the end of 1918, is simultaneously enchanting and disturbing, as is the real music around Saturn. And by music I mean these sounds from the space between Saturn and his icy moon Enceladus:
Plasma waves between Saturn and Enceladus
The source of this etheric chorus is the movement of plasma waves between Saturn and Enceladus, recorded by the Cassini spacecraft and then converted into sound that the human ear can record. Plasma, the fourth state of matter, in addition to solid, liquid and gas, is an extremely hot gas made up of charged particles. It exists throughout the cosmos, including in Saturn's magnetic field, the protective bubble that surrounds the planet. Of course, despite its many cool attributes, space lacks the main ingredient for producing sound: air. When an object vibrates, for example a bubble, the movements also vibrate molecules in the air. The air molecules collide against other air molecules, which collide against other air molecules, and so on, producing waves that continue to spin until the molecules have run out of energy and no longer fly around. If you're within earshot of this interaction, you'll hear the sound.Â
