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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>Dear list folks,<BR>
<BR>Given today's magnificent achievement of the European Space Agency's successful<BR>landing by the Philae probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (called just<BR>
"67P" by everybody:), I think it is fitting to mention a couple of items about _real_<BR>space music (i.e., NOT the sound tracks to 2001, Trek, and Star Wars:), for our<BR>students' benefits and our own. (My apologies for the length.)<BR>
<BR>
Some SMT members may not be aware of a growing connection between scientific<BR>analysis and musical sound--the use of "sonification" to convert data of various<BR>kinds (X-rays, magnetic fields, radio, cosmic ray hits, etc.) into audible signals.<BR>Doing so not only gives access for blind researchers to study "visual" data in ways<BR>
not previously possible, but sighted researchers can often pick up on changes in<BR>
the evolution of a phenomenon, via timbre changes, that might have gone unnoticed<BR>
otherwise. In the U.S. National Public Radio has run 2 stories on sonification this<BR>
year; links are here:<BR>
<BR><A href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/10/261397236/dying-stars-write-their-own-swan-songs">http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/10/261397236/dying-stars-write-their-own-swan-songs</A><BR>
<BR><A href="http://www.npr.org/2014/11/08/362588083/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-sample">http://www.npr.org/2014/11/08/362588083/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-sample</A><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
The plasma detection by Voyager 1 that proved it had crossed over the border into<BR>interstellar space in Aug. 2012 is mentioned in the second item. The MP3 file<BR>itself, sans voice-over, is available here:<BR>
<BR><A href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/interstellarvoyager/audio/interstellar.mp3">http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/interstellarvoyager/audio/interstellar.mp3</A><BR>
<BR>The 2 bits of sounds above the hiss are sonfications of data from solar eruptions<BR>that swept past V'ger several months apart; the rise in pitch indicated a significant<BR>change in plasma density exactly consistent with leaving the bubble of gas surrounding<BR>the Sun and entering the interstellar medium.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Re today's event, the magnetometer on Rosetta registered oscillations in the comet's<BR>magnetic field as it reached rendezvous with 67P in August--in effect, sounds (albeit<BR>at ca. 40 milli-Hz). A short stretch of the sounds have been raised up 13+ octaves;<BR>an audio link is at this story:<BR>
<BR><A href="http://www.universetoday.com/116214/better-than-bieber-rosettas-comet-sings-strange-seductive-song/#more-116214">http://www.universetoday.com/116214/better-than-bieber-rosettas-comet-sings-strange-seductive-song/#more-116214</A><BR>
<BR>A bit of the old Ludwig Van it ain't, but it's quite fascinating.:)<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
The grandest scale of space music is the Cosmic Microwave Background--the afterglow<BR>of the Big Bang, the moment of creation 13.8 billion years ago. The CMB reflects<BR>the point some 300,000+ years later when the universe cooled down enough to become<BR>transparent. Density variations while it was still a hot opaque fog of subatomic<BR>particles caused oscillations--literal acoustic waves across the entire universe,<BR>with harmonics of different amplitudes--which became frozen onto the CMB. Through<BR>detailed study over the last 20 years, astronomers have made significant progress<BR>in constraining possible models of the past and future evolution of the universe.<BR>
<BR>Wayne Hu at the University of Chicago has beginning and intermediate tutorials on<BR>the CMB and efforts to read off its harmonics (a complete understanding, especially<BR>of #2, does require some math chops, btw...):<BR>
<BR><A href="http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/beginners/introduction.html">http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/beginners/introduction.html</A><BR>
<BR><A href="http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/intermediate/intermediate.html">http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/intermediate/intermediate.html</A><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Finally, something a bit closer to home for any present-day-Pythagorean wannabes:<BR>the Earth has been found to "hum" at ca. 4.4 milli-Hz. (The Sun also undergoes such<BR>oscillations.) I know of no sonifcation efforts towards such data, but interested<BR>folks can begin a lit search with Suda, Nawa, and Fukao's 1998 article in _Science_<BR>(v.279, 2089-2091), "Earth's Background Free Oscillations."<BR>
<BR>
SO--a new angle with which to show music's (well, orchestration's:) relevance to<BR>school administration budget writers!:)<BR>
<BR>Art Samplaski<BR>
Ithaca, NY<BR> </div></body>
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