Listen to the largest planet in our solar system sing its song
Take a moment and just let the universe sing to you.
A new audio file released by NASA on Thursday reveals the "sound" of Jupiter's plasma as recorded by the space agency's Juno probe, which is exploring the huge planet.
The two minutes of audio sounds pretty eerie, but also oddly familiar, with musical beeps cascading toward the end of the recording.
NASA researchers created the sound file by using data taken by Juno during its close pass with Jupiter in February.
This isn't exactly what you'd hear if you were floating in the space around Jupiter, however.
The data is actually a measurement of plasma density in Jupiter's ionosphere, but the recorded waves are actually above the human hearing range, according to NASA. In order to make the data audible, the researchers slowed down the playback by a factor of 60, the agency added.
The beeps heard near the end of the recording are still a source of mystery for NASA.
"The momentary, nearly pure tones follow a scale related to the electron density, and are likely associated with an interaction between the Juno spacecraft and the charged particles in Jupiter’s ionosphere," NASA said in a statement. "The exact source of these discrete tones is currently being investigated."
This isn't the first time Jupiter, through Juno, has sung us its song before. NASA also converted some data into sound when the spacecraft crossed into the part of space dominated by Jupiter's magnetosphere.
NASA, through Juno, has had a close relationship with music generally.
NASA also dropped some beats when it collaborated with Apple in 2016, just before Juno arrived at Jupiter, to create an album of music in honor of the mission to the huge world.
Weezer, Trent Reznor, and others contributed songs to that project, but who knows what music these plasma sounds from Jupiter will inspire next.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
