Sound of deep space revealed for first time

For the first time, scientists have captured the sound of deep space in stunning new recordings- and it sounds like the dawn chorus of birds singing in spring interspersed with deep bass pulses from the sun.

Andrew Williams, from Leicester’s Space Research Centre, used data collected by satellites and spacecraft to generate the sound you would hear if you tuned a radio in to outer space.

The most compelling recording is the “Dawn Chorus” of electrons hitting the upper atmosphere. They sound like starlings tweeting above a bubbling brook, interrupted by the sun’s pulses, the

Daily Express reported.

The sound was recorded by the Cluster II satellite on the July 9, 2001 using a Long Wave Radio receiver. Mr. Williams said the signals were outside the range of human hearing so he had to lower the pitch and filter them to make them audible.

Another recording is of the rhythmic pulses of the sun, but Mr. Williams had to overcome many difficulties for this one. The sounds picked up by the Soho spacecraft are so deep that he had to magnify their pitch by 40,000 times.

Because the sound occurs once every five minutes he accelerated the recording 42,000 times to provide 40 days of pulses in a few seconds.

“Much of the data comes from Satellites (in particular Cluster II) and it seemed natural to find the exact location of this when the data was collected,” Mr. Williams said.

“I then realised that the trajectories of satellites created a transfixing and beautiful visual landscape. It also shows how much-or little-of space we currently colonise,” he said.

The recordings are now on display at Leicester University.