Hear the sound that astrophysicists transformed the plasma waves recorded by the Cassini probe just before its death in Saturn's atmosphere.
Saturn's rings don't just revolve around a giant planet; they talk to him. The data collected by the Cassini probe during its triumphant fall into Saturn's atmosphere revealed noises characteristic of very low frequency radio waves in different phases. They were recorded by the Radio Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) Cassini instrument, which measured radio waves and the temperature and density of the plasma through which the probe passed.
“Enceladus [the sixth largest moon of Saturn] acts like a small generator of electromagnetic waves. Saturn responds to the radiation generated by the motion of Enceladus, waves that are born in the plasmasphere surrounding the planet and its rings. Plasma particles line up along the lines of the magnetic field (more precisely, they rotate in spirals around these lines) and extend to Enceladus for millions of kilometers, "- explain the scientists who worked with the data" Cassini ".
Moving along the lines of the magnetic field, plasma particles - free electrons and ions - are accelerated and emit electromagnetic waves, which scientists call plasma waves; the counter-radiation of Enceladus causes the particles to vibrate and emit a little more.
Of course, there are no sounds in space, but if you turn radio waves into sound and accelerate (compress 16 minutes into 28.5 seconds), then the conversation between Saturn and Enceladus can be heard; it will sound like the noise of an untuned radio. Previously, scientists have already registered plasma waves in the vicinity of Enceladus, but this time the device was farther from the satellite and closer to the giant planet than ever.
Plasma waves in the Earth's plasmasphere, which are born when the electric and magnetic fields of the planet, cause the charged plasma particles to vibrate, approximately also "sound". The earthly "whisper" of plasma was recorded several years ago by NASA's Van Allen probes.
Two articles (1, 2) on plasma waves between Enceladus and Saturn are published in Geophysical Research Letters.
