Listen To The Sunrise On March In Haunting Soundtrack Created From Opportunity Photo

Scientists captured the sound of a rising sun over the planet.

We now know what a sunrise on Mars sounds like, thanks to a wonderful project undertaken by a very creative team from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Exeter, both in the UK.

Months before NASA's Opportunity rover went silent on the red planet, the now-stranded robot took a historic photograph of a Martian sunrise. Captured on camera in mid-February, this was the 5,000th sunrise witnessed by Opportunity since it first landed on March 25, 2004.

British scientists, who used data sonification techniques to capture the sound of the rising sun and translate the image into a song, reports Phys.org.

Their efforts yielded a stirring piece of music titled "March Soundscapes," which gives a new dimension to the Martian sunrise, echoing the rise of the sun over the alien landscape.

According to CNet, data sonification is the equivalent audio of data visualization. The technique works by scanning a visual pixel by pixel image – in this case, the Opportunity photo of the sunrise on Mars – and tracking changes in brightness, color, and terrain elevation data.

Each element is identified in the snapshot by the team with a specific pitch and melody via a series of algorithms. The resulting audio track is two minutes long and is absolutely breathtaking.

The incredible soundtrack of the Martian sunrise was released on YouTube earlier this week. Listen to the rising sun and prepare for an otherworldly sonic experience.

"The quiet, slow harmonies are a consequence of the darkness and the brighter," said a spokesman, "" "" The quiet, slow harmonies are the result of the sonication of the bright sun disk, "explained to news release from Anglia Ruskin University.

The "Mars Soundscapes" audio track will be premiered at the SC18 Supercomputer Conference in Dallas on 13 November.

"We are absolutely thrilled about presenting such a fascinating planet," said Dr. Domenico Vicinanza, who runs the Sound and Game Engineering (SAGE) research group at Anglia Ruskin. "Sonication is a really flexible technique to explore science and it can be used in several areas, from studying certain characteristics of planet surfaces and atmospheres, to the effect of detecting volcanic eruptions."

As the Inquisitr NASA's 60th anniversary has been unveiled this summer ahead of NASA's extraterrestrial sunrises. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and set to the music of Claude Debussy's "The Moonlight."