Hear the creepy sounds detected by NASA's Jupiter probe
Digital Reporter
Sunday, July 3, 2016, 5:45 PM - NASA's Juno probe is set to arrive in orbit around Jupiter on Monday, after a five-year journey across the solar system.
Like Cassini, which has been sending back reams of pictures and data from Saturn and its moons, Juno is set to explore the solar system's largest planet as never before. Specifically, its mission is to peer into the origins of the planet, understanding how it was formed to give insight into the formation of our own solar system, and new exoplanets being discovered around distant stars.
And we're hoping Juno's mission is way less freaky than the sounds it picked up as it crossed the barrier into Jupiter's enormous magnetosphere:
It's certainly an eerie sound (Gizmodo called it "nightmare fuel"), but like almost every other weird thing observed by Earth's probes, it has a totally rational explanation.
NASA says the red and yellow areas in the video above are made up of "electromagnetic waves that are trapped in a low-density cavity in Jupiter's outer magnetosphere."
The agency says those waves are relatively limited, as there are fewer particles in the space of the outer magnetosphere, but the number of particles will increase as Juno gets nearer to the Jovian giant.
Jupiter gives off an immense amount of radiation, but the Verge says Juno will avoid the worst of it by assuming a particular orbit, and the probe is also protected by sturdy radiation shielding.
