Sunday, February 3, 2013

Listening to Jupiter.... on the radio?





Apparently, we can listen in on the sound of a planet by picking up on their ultrasonic frequencies (wavelengths too short fro humans to hear). Jupiter has a strong magnetic field, about 10 times more powerful than earth's. How so? Its because of Jupiter's hydrogen content. Deep inside Jupiter the gravitational force is so strong that there lies a sea of liquid hydrogen that behaves like a metal, allowing the flow of electricity (definition of a magnetic field). This could be why we can't hear other planets without the help of satellites.
According to NASA  you tend to hear the sound of woodpeckers, whales, sounds accelerating or decelerating. They only occur during Jupiter's intense radio storms. Now the reason I mentioned Jupiter's strong magnetic field is because these radio-waves are able to be received by short-wave radios and played through our loudspeakers. Now which is more suitable to pick up these waves, AM or FM? The answer is AM because Jupiter's Magnetic Frequency goes from .01 to 40 MHz (wiki) which is not within the bandwidth of FM (88-108 MHz).
Where can we hear these sounds? I remember watching this whole documentary (where this vid comes from) and they we're able to do this in some desert. That makes sense to me because you don't want background noises hindering the quality of sound you get from Jupiter. A have a link below (radio jove) as an example of Jupiter's sounds. For me, this seems like something fun to do: go camp out overnight in the desert listening to our solar system's greatest hits while eating s'mores... That actually sounds like a good plan!!!

And lastly, for your enjoyment: the Earth singing in whale:



Links:

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/AleksandraCzajka.shtml
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/20feb_radiostorms/
http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/observing/sample_data.htm

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