The plasma between Saturn and Enceladus is music, listen!

NASA's Cbadini probe during its suicide descent from the Ghent Finale recorded the powerful and dynamic interaction of plasma waves moving from Saturn to its rings and moon Enceladus. The data show for the first time that waves travel on magnetic field lines (like an electrical circuit connecting two bodies, with energy coming and going) that connect Saturn directly to Enceladus. This is the content of the two studies published on the American Geophysical Union website

That is, on September 2, 2017, two weeks before committing suicide in Saturn's atmosphere, Cbadini has recorded for 16 minutes and 28.5 seconds intense plasma waves with Wave Plasma Wave Science Instrument (RPWS). Researchers from the University of Iowa have converted them into sound waves that you can hear in this short story:

Just like the air or the l & # 39; Water, plasma (the fourth state of matter) generates waves that carry energy. "Enceladus is a small generator that revolves around Saturn and we know that it is a source of continuous energy," said Ali Sulaiman, a global scientist at the University of Iowa. , member of the RPWS team and lead author of the study. "Now we discover that Saturn responds by sending signals in the form of plasma waves, through the circuit of magnetic field lines that connect it to Enceladus, which is hundreds of thousands of kilometers away."

Read also: Listen noise of silence between Saturn and its rings

The interaction of Saturn and Enceladus is different from the relationship between the Earth and its Moon. Enceladus is immersed in the magnetic field of Saturn and is geologically active, so as to emit the famous plumes of water vapor that fill the environment around Saturn. Similar interactions take place between Saturn and its rings. Our Moon does not interact in the same way with the Earth.