Saturn's Eerie Radio Emissions Mapped in 3-D
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Projection of radio sources onto plane perpendicular to line between Cassini and the centre of Saturn
While Saturn and its rings are beautiful and wondrous, the sounds of Saturn are eerie and strange. Scientists have been trying to understand the bizarre radio emissions that come from the ringed planet, called the Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR). Scientists have used observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft build a 3-D picture of these intense radio emissions emanating from Saturn's magnetic field. The SKR radio emissions are generated by high-energy electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines threaded through Saturn's auroras.
Previous Cassini observations have shown that the SKR is closely correlated with the intensity of Saturn's UV aurora and the pressure of the solar wind. "The animation shows radio sources clustered around curving magnetic field lines," said Dr. Baptiste Cecconi, of LESIA, Observatoire de Paris. "Because the radio signals are beamed out from the source in a cone-shape, we can only detect the sources as Cassini flies through the cone. When Cassini flies at high altitudes over the ring planes, we see the sources clearly clustered around one or two field lines. However, at low latitudes we get more refraction and so the sources appear to be scattered."
The active area of the magnetic field matched up with near-polar latitudes degrees in both the northern and southern hemisphere, the location of Saturn’s UV aurora.
"For the purposes of the model, we've imagined a screen that cuts through the middle of Saturn, set up at right-angles to the line between Cassini and the centre of the planet. We've mapped the footprints of the radio sources projected onto the screen, which tilts as Cassini moves along its orbital path and its orientation with respect to Saturn changes. We've also traced the footprints of the magnetic field lines back to the cloud tops of Saturn," said Cecconi.
Listen to the sounds of Saturn.
Although there were some minor differences between emissions in the northern and southern hemispheres, the emissions were strongest in the western part of Saturn'ss sunlit hemisphere. This area corresponds to a region of Saturn's magnetopause where electrons are thought to be accelerated by the interaction of the solar wind and Saturn's magnetic field.
The measurements were made using Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) experiment.
Cecconi presented his results at the European Planetary Science Congress on Tuesday, September 23rd.
Source: European Planetary Science Congress
Filed under: Saturn
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September 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
Kind of creepy!
Maybe that is the sound of an atomic bomb being dropped into Saturn to create a second sun to provide more light for us to bask in.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Or the Saturnians have unusual tastes in music.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Pink Floyd and all those Godzilla movies were ahead of their time
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Freaky for sure…
Never listen to this one at night….
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
::does the hambone::
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Freakin' hell, that is scary. Horror movies should license this audio file.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Why would it repeat the same frequency three times? If electrons follow the Brownian Law of physics? what is the probabillity that the same sound frequency is repeated? surrley not possible. I am not trying to plant the seed of inteligent life, however questioning the hoax theory. And a good one too. anyone wanna proof me wrong please do so.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Wonderful! You could drop this into the soundtrack of 'Forbidden Planet' (movie made in 1956), and only dedicated students of early electronic music would be able to tell the difference.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:28 am
This is absolutely stunningly beautiful – got sidetracked when I followed the link – I'm now learning about what Kronos Quartet and Terry Riley made out of similar recordings:
http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/sun-rings/Kronos-Lecture/
thanks for this article and the link!
September 24th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Random & unintentional outbound television & radio signals from the inhabitants of Saturn? Intentional transmissions of greeting?
September 24th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Hi Nancy,
Please add the word 'to' between 'spacecraft' and 'build'
Scientists have used observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft … build…
October 10th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Having been a Hawkwind fan for 35+years these sounds are very, very familiar. I have a bootleg recording of a gig from Wloverhampton in mid 1971 and the resemblence to the Saturnian sound is unncanny, virtually identical. Weird.