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[beep beep beep.]

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[high-pitched whooshing]

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That’s one small step for man...

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[clunking, quiet whooshing]

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[trilling music]

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[high-pitched whooshing]

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[whooshing fades like wind]

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One giant leap for mankind.

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[beep beep beep beep]

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Sound is one of the best connectors.

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Listening to a song
you haven't heard in years can take

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you immediately back to a time and place.

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Sounds can transport us
to the middle of the woods.

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And two notes can create an entire sense
of fear and looming.

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[as the Jaws theme]: Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun
dun dun dun dun

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And sound can help us understand, share
and connect to our universe.

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In this sound experience,
we will venture across the cosmos,

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listening to the proclamation
of the Space Age.

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Tune into radio waves

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that inhabit the Earth's protective
shield, the magnetosphere,

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and their sister waves at Jupiter.

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We will listen to the sonification of data

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from literally across the universe
and then come back here to Earth.

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Then we will hear
the sounds created on other worlds.

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Join us as we
listen our way through the universe.

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[beep beep beep beep
beeping continues]

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Sputnik.

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For the last 4.6ish billion years,
the inhabitants of Earth

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have been confined to, well, the Earth.

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A short 67 years ago,
we took our first steps

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of leaving this planet
and venturing out into space.

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Sputnik transmitted a beep,

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something that could be heard the world
over as a small probe orbited the Earth,

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announcing humanity's first steps
into the vastness beyond our atmosphere.

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3...2...1...0...Liftoff

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[rocket engines rumble]

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Apollo 11.

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Tranquility Base here.

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The Eagle has landed.

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Roger. Tranquility.

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Only 12 years later,

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the world listened as Neil Armstrong
became the first human to walk on

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soil beyond our earthly home.

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That's one small step for man.

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But one giant leap for mankind.

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[high-pitched whooshing]

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Earth's chorus waves.

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But humans are not the only things
that create radio waves in space.

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[high-pitched whooshing]

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Naturally occurring radio waves

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bounce throughout the universe.

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In the early days of computing,
it was easier to listen to these waves

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than to try to process large
amounts of data for visual inspection.

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Because we were listening,
the names we gave

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these waves were depictions
of how they sound.

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One class of waves we find in
the magnetosphere are called whistlers.

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[staccato whooshing]

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There are many types,

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but my favorite are the chorus waves.

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[overlapping whooshing]

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They got this name because they sound
like a chorus of birds in the morning,

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and these waves are typically found
on the dawn side of the Earth.

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[overlapping whooshing]

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[wind-like rush]

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Jupiter's plasma waves.

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Listening to the sounds of space

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at Earth helps us understand
other planets.

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We hear whistler waves at Jupiter, too.

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But since Jupiter is so much bigger,
it remixes

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these sounds a bit differently. 
And almost like a cover band,

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it adds something new to the mix.

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So we can listen to one of our favorite
sounds from Earth –

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whistler waves – remixed by Jupiter's
much larger magnetosphere.

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[wind-like rush]

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[chimes]

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Galactic center sonification.

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Radio waves like whistlers can be found
throughout the universe.

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But that's not the only way
we use sound to study the cosmos.

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Sonification is a process
of taking the data we receive,

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such as X-ray and optical data,
and map it to sounds to help us

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connect, find interesting new things,
to study, and share our results.

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If we sweep across three different images
of the center of our galaxy

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from the Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer
telescopes, we can hear the data.

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[bell chimes]

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The vertical position
of the recorded light controls the pitch,

86
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while the intensity of the light controls
the volume.

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Each telescope gets its own instrument,

88
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allowing us to hear a symphony of data
from all wavelengths.

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[plucked string bass notes]

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Our home.

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Sound evokes

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emotion,
connecting us to our everyday lives.

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We can use sound to help us communicate

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important information
such as crop yield in the U.S.

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In this piece,
every sound carries meaning.

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Six notes of an

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acoustic guitar indicate
the current top six crops by acreage:

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in order corn, soybeans, wheat,

99
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alfalfa, cotton, and sorghum

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In each year,

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the pitch of these notes
indicates the acreage recorded.

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Higher pitches indicate more acreage,
and a low

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percussive sound distinguishes each year.

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This data
and beautiful melody of farming in the U.S.

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is provided by Landsat,
a joint mission from NASA

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and USGS.

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[rushing wind]

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Marks on Mars.

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Mars doesn't yet grow crops,
but it has an atmosphere

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like Earth, and like Earth, it has winds.

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The Perseverance Mars rover has provided
the first sounds from the red planet,

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and they are both familiar
and literally out of this world.

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Just close your eyes and imagine

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you are lounging on a foreign planet
with the rustling of wind.

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[rushing wind]

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[low clanking]

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Then the serene sounds are

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interrupted by the rover driving past.

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[rushing wind]

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And again, with the Ingenuity helicopter
taking flight,

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off to discover the secrets
of the Martian landscape.

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[a low rattle, like a cat’s purr]

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Edges of our solar system.

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And we end our travel
with the sound of success

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from the 12th of November 2014.

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Just over half-a-billion

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miles away from Earth,
the Rosetta-Philae lander landed safely

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on a comet transmitting data
from the edges of our solar system.

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[rattle growing higher in pitch]

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[rattle changes pitch higher and lower]

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Thanks for listening with me,

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Alexa Holford from the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Art has always been a part of my life
and is one way that I feel

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we can connect more deeply
with science, humanity, and each other.