These eerie sounds made from a NASA flyby of Jupiter’s moon Europa are haunting

October 27, 2022

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An eerie new video permits us to listen to what NASA’s Juno spacecraft skilled because it made a flyby of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa final month.

The 11-second-long audio observe expresses variations of plasma frequency, utilizing information collected by Juno over 90 minutes because it made a flyby of Europa on Sept. 29. Changing this information into sound — information sonification — permits us to listen to the variation of frequency of the plasma waves noticed by Juno close to Europa because the plasma density adjustments.

The plasma wave detections had been made by the Juno Waves instrument within the frequency vary of fifty to 150 kHz and the information collected in the course of the flyby will assist reveal extra about Europa, in keeping with a NASA statement.

Associated: Behold! Our closest view of Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa in 22 years

A view of Jupiter’s moon Europa captured by NASA’s Juno mission throughout its Sept. 29 shut flyby on the moon. The spacecraft was 945 miles (1,500 kilometers) above the moon’s floor when the picture was taken. (Picture credit score: Picture information: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Picture processing by Björn Jónsson CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Waves instrument was designed to assist scientists perceive the interactions between Jupiter’s atmosphere, magnetic area and magnetosphere, in addition to to grasp Jupiter‘s auroras.

But it surely will also be helpful for studying extra about Europa, which scientists assume has a big subsurface ocean. Measuring the adjustments in density of charged particle gasoline, or plasma, surrounding Europa can present perception into the moon’s magnetic area and, in flip, clues in regards to the construction of the moon’s inside.

The emissions reveal that plasma density close to Europa ranged from about 60 to 120 electrons per cubic centimeter, however with a really transient peak close to 300 electrons per cubic centimeter proper at Juno’s closest method to Europa, in keeping with NASA.

Juno entered orbit round Jupiter in July 2016. The flyby is a part of an prolonged mission that started in 2021. Juno made a flyby of Ganymede in June 2021 for which NASA additionally created a cool audio clip.

Juno may even fly by the volcanically energetic Io, the closest-in of the Galilean moons, in late 2023 and early 2024 as Jupiter’s immense gravity pulls Juno nearer to the planet with every orbit of the spacecraft.

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