NASA Soundcloud account presents us all with the soundtrack of space
Meteorologist/Science Writer
Thursday, October 23, 2014, 4:20 PM - Looking for the perfect space exploration ring tone? Want to hear JFK's rousing speech that championed the moon missions. or Neil Armstrong's memorable words from the first mission that landed there? How about what Saturn sounds like, or distant variable star KIC 7671081B? Well, now's your chance, as NASA has uploaded a growing soundtrack of space onto the social sound platform Soundcloud.
Straight from NASA's profile:
"Here's a collection of NASA sounds from historic spaceflights and current missions. You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's 'One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind' every time you get a phone call if you make our sounds your ringtone. Or, you can hear the memorable words 'Houston, we've had a problem,' every time you make an error on your computer."
Among some of the more unusual ones in the list, so far are the radio emissions Cassini detected coming from Saturn:
These eerie noises, which are reminiscent of the sound effects from old black & white science fiction movies, are associated with the powerful auroral displays at the giant planet's poles. If you recorded the radio transmissions from Earth's auroras, it would sound similar.
This one lets us listen in on Earthsong - the pulsing chirps from the Van Allen radiation belts known as 'chorus'.
According to NASA's website: "Chorus is an electromagnetic phenomenon caused by plasma waves in Earth's radiation belts. For years, ham radio operators on Earth have been listening to them from afar.  Now, NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes are traveling through the region of space where chorus actually comes from - and the recordings are out of this world."
How about Voyager 1's sounds from interstellar space?
These weren't actually sounds, of course, but vibrations produced in the interstellar gases near Voyager's position, as a coronal mass ejection from the Sun swept by. NASA scientists converted the vibrations into sound so that we could hear it.
Over 60 tracks are available on the account so far, all downloadable for free, from more mundane mission soundbites to more strangeness from the depths of the solar system and beyond. Click here to access the full collection.
