That's how scary Saturn and his Enceladus moon sound

The space is incredibly huge. And he is deadly calm. There is no way like air or water that could carry sound waves – even though most sci-fi movies ignore this fact. It seems all the stranger that the Cassini space probe recorded strange noises in the orbit around Saturn on September 2, 2017.

The picture was taken two weeks before Cassini crashed as expected was brought and disappeared into the atmosphere of the gas giant. The data collected by the spacecraft before his last mission using plasma radio wave acquisition instruments (RPWS) show a strong ejection of Saturn plasma waves. to the Enceladus moon.

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena have now successfully classified these images. In two studies published in Geophysical Research Letters, they show that Saturn interacts with its rings and with Enceladus. Plasma waves circulate on the field lines of a magnetic field, which directly connects the planet to its satellite. Plasma – a mixture of particles made up of charged and neutral particles – generates waves and thus transports energy.

To evaluate these plasma waves, scientists have transformed them into audio files. How a radio converts electromagnetic waves into sound waves, like music. In addition, they compressed the 16 minutes to 28.5 seconds and reduced the frequency by a factor of 5. The result looks good, a bit extraterrestrial:

For scientists, such noises are not really new – there is even a technical term: "Auroral hiss" (English: "auroral hiss"). The fact that it occurs near Saturn comes from the fact that there is another kind of interaction between the gaseous giant and this moon that between Earth and its satellite.

Unlike the Earth's moon, Enceladus is geologically active and is completely immersed in the magnetic field of its parent planet. It emits fountains of water vapor and ice crystals that ionize and feed a Saturn ring. There is no comparable interaction between the earth and the moon.

(dhr)