Photo: ESA/ATG medialab
Earth is a wonderful place still, and that’s possible thanks to a lot of things going just right. One of the most important such things is the planet’s magnetic field, an invisible force that keeps us safe from a wide range of cosmic dangers.
The magnetic field is generated by the planet’s iron and nickel core, more precisely by the motion of convection currents caused by heat escaping the core. It extends from inside the core to the space around our planet, and shields us from things like cosmic radiation and charged solar particles, thus being essential to the existence of life in this blue heaven.
As said, the magnetic field is invisible, but it's also quiet, so you never really know it’s there. If it weren’t quiet, we’d all probably die of exhaustion, as if it emitted sound, it'd be simply awful.
We know that thanks to scientists from the Technical University of Denmark, who managed to convert the data captured by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm satellite and convert it into sound, effectively giving the magnetic field a voice of its own.
Well, it’s actually more than one voice we’re dealing with here, and the five-minute-long recording the Europeans released contains all sorts of sounds, from what seem to be chimes to the screams of something being dragged on a cold stone floor.
For the duration of the recording, though, we get to hear what sounds like millions of glass marbles being dropped on the floor, in a bowl, and pretty much everywhere. You can experience that for yourself in the attached Soundcloud file below.
Technically, knowing what the Earth’s magnetic field sounds like will not help our society, scientifically speaking, in any way, and according to ESA it’s just “a quirky way of reminding us that the magnetic field exists.”
Danes in Copenhagen will be reminded of that en masse between October 24 and October 30, as loudspeakers installed at Solbjerg Square will blast the above magnetic field sounds three times a day.
As said, the magnetic field is invisible, but it's also quiet, so you never really know it’s there. If it weren’t quiet, we’d all probably die of exhaustion, as if it emitted sound, it'd be simply awful.
We know that thanks to scientists from the Technical University of Denmark, who managed to convert the data captured by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm satellite and convert it into sound, effectively giving the magnetic field a voice of its own.
Well, it’s actually more than one voice we’re dealing with here, and the five-minute-long recording the Europeans released contains all sorts of sounds, from what seem to be chimes to the screams of something being dragged on a cold stone floor.
For the duration of the recording, though, we get to hear what sounds like millions of glass marbles being dropped on the floor, in a bowl, and pretty much everywhere. You can experience that for yourself in the attached Soundcloud file below.
Technically, knowing what the Earth’s magnetic field sounds like will not help our society, scientifically speaking, in any way, and according to ESA it’s just “a quirky way of reminding us that the magnetic field exists.”
Danes in Copenhagen will be reminded of that en masse between October 24 and October 30, as loudspeakers installed at Solbjerg Square will blast the above magnetic field sounds three times a day.
Google News