Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos
Encyclopedia
Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos is an unofficial digital download
compilation album
recorded by NASA
's Voyager
1
and 2
during their flybys of Jupiter
, Saturn
, Uranus
and Neptune
. It was collaborated and was planned for worldwide download
release by RazorEyeDownloads (R.E.D) on August 26, 2011.
The album is a collection of planetary radio emission signals recorded by the Voyager's Planetary Radio Astronomy
Investigation Instrument during its mission. They were converted into Sound Files by NASA
for further studies. They were individually released to the general public in the years following their original recordings.
is a series of United States
unmanned space missions that consists of a pair of unmanned scientific probes, Voyager 1
and Voyager 2
. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s. Although they were officially designated to study just Jupiter and Saturn, the two probes were able to continue their mission into the outer solar system. The Voyager Spacecraft each had equipment capable of recording emission signals given off by the planets, their moons and their ring systems. These equipment were designated as Planetary Radio Astronomy Investigation Instruments (PRA) and are used in Radio astronomy
. Recordings were made. Interractions of the solar wind with planet's magnetosphere, magnetosphere itself, electromagnetic fields, charged particles emissions, charged particle interactions of the planet, its moons, and the solar wind. All this electromagnetic phenomenons can be transformed into electric signals, which can in turn be amplified and used to excite the membrane of a loud speaker ; thus making audible to the human ear the rustling of the cosmos. All these sounds were recorded while the Voyagers were passing near their targets, and assembled without manipulation, using Audacity
.
Development on Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos started in January 2011, the 25th anniversary of Voyager 2's flyby of Uranus
and 30th Anniversary of Saturn
. The collaboration effort was made using tracks downloaded using various websites, including the NASA
Archives and archives of news sources such as the Associated Press
. Most of the files were corrupt from multiple usage, and was restored to full recording quality using Audacity. These New, refined audio files were then filed together and Uploaded to YouTube
, and the Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos website on Google Sites
it picked up a number of signals emitted by the rings and Saturn itself respectively. During the encounter with Uranus, Voyager 2 recorded the sounds of Uranus during its closest approach on 24 January 1986 at a distance of 81500 km (50,641.9 mi) and during its retreat towards Neptune on 26 January. It managed to pick up signals from Uranus' Rings during closest approach and Miranda when it flew by on 24 January. On 25 August 1989, Voyager 2 made its final planetary flyby, Neptune. Voyager's final PRA objective was to record emissions of Neptune's north pole on closest approach.
, but because the Work of NASA is in the Public Domain, being property of the US Government (unless noted), RazorEye was legally allowed to do this. The audio pieces were restored to full quality as it was when they were originally released. Before the original Sounds Of the Cosmos was released, the album was released as a playlist on the RazorEye YouTube
Channel. On April 10, 2011, the album was put up for digital download on the Sounds Of the Cosmos website.
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
recorded by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Voyager
Voyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
and 2
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...
during their flybys of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
, Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
and Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
. It was collaborated and was planned for worldwide download
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
release by RazorEyeDownloads (R.E.D) on August 26, 2011.
The album is a collection of planetary radio emission signals recorded by the Voyager's Planetary Radio Astronomy
Radio astronomy
Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of...
Investigation Instrument during its mission. They were converted into Sound Files by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
for further studies. They were individually released to the general public in the years following their original recordings.
Background and development
The Voyager programVoyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
is a series of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
unmanned space missions that consists of a pair of unmanned scientific probes, Voyager 1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
and Voyager 2
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...
. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s. Although they were officially designated to study just Jupiter and Saturn, the two probes were able to continue their mission into the outer solar system. The Voyager Spacecraft each had equipment capable of recording emission signals given off by the planets, their moons and their ring systems. These equipment were designated as Planetary Radio Astronomy Investigation Instruments (PRA) and are used in Radio astronomy
Radio astronomy
Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of...
. Recordings were made. Interractions of the solar wind with planet's magnetosphere, magnetosphere itself, electromagnetic fields, charged particles emissions, charged particle interactions of the planet, its moons, and the solar wind. All this electromagnetic phenomenons can be transformed into electric signals, which can in turn be amplified and used to excite the membrane of a loud speaker ; thus making audible to the human ear the rustling of the cosmos. All these sounds were recorded while the Voyagers were passing near their targets, and assembled without manipulation, using Audacity
Audacity
Audacity is a free software, cross-platform digital audio editor and recording application. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD.Audacity was created by Dominic Mazzoni while he was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University...
.
Development on Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos started in January 2011, the 25th anniversary of Voyager 2's flyby of Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
and 30th Anniversary of Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
. The collaboration effort was made using tracks downloaded using various websites, including the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Archives and archives of news sources such as the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
. Most of the files were corrupt from multiple usage, and was restored to full recording quality using Audacity. These New, refined audio files were then filed together and Uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, and the Voyager: Sounds of the Cosmos website on Google Sites
Google Sites
Google Sites is a structured wiki- and web page-creation tool offered by Google as part of the Google Apps Productivity suite.- History :Google Sites started out as JotSpot, the name and sole product of a software company that offered enterprise social software. It was targeted mainly at...
Voyager 1
Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter on March 5–6, 1979, recording radio emissions during the Io encounter and at closest approach of Jupiter, 349000 km (216,859.1 mi). With a gravity assist via Jupiter, Voyager 1 then went on to Saturn, where it recorded the radio waves emitted by Saturn during its closest approach of 124000 km (77,050.2 mi) on 12 November 1980, and during its outgoing retreat on 14 November. It also managed to achieve a Titan flyby, in which Voyager too did make readings.Voyager 2
Voyager 2 started recording emissions when it made its flyby of Saturn on 26 August 1981. During its crossing of the ring planeRings of Saturn
The rings of Saturn are the most extensive planetary ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometres to metres, that form clumps that in turn orbit about Saturn...
it picked up a number of signals emitted by the rings and Saturn itself respectively. During the encounter with Uranus, Voyager 2 recorded the sounds of Uranus during its closest approach on 24 January 1986 at a distance of 81500 km (50,641.9 mi) and during its retreat towards Neptune on 26 January. It managed to pick up signals from Uranus' Rings during closest approach and Miranda when it flew by on 24 January. On 25 August 1989, Voyager 2 made its final planetary flyby, Neptune. Voyager's final PRA objective was to record emissions of Neptune's north pole on closest approach.
Release
RazorEyeDownloads (more commonly known as R.E.D.) had gathered all the original files and put them into a studio album-type collection of all the Voyager Recordings. Of course, the Voyager Recordings were the property of NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, but because the Work of NASA is in the Public Domain, being property of the US Government (unless noted), RazorEye was legally allowed to do this. The audio pieces were restored to full quality as it was when they were originally released. Before the original Sounds Of the Cosmos was released, the album was released as a playlist on the RazorEye YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
Channel. On April 10, 2011, the album was put up for digital download on the Sounds Of the Cosmos website.
Track listing
Release history
| Region | Date | Format | Edition | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | July 1, 2011 | Digital Download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment... |
Voyager: Sounds Of Jupiter EP Extended play An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact... |
EP Release on SotC Website |
| July 10, 2011 | Jupiter Closest Approach Single | Single Release on SotC Website | ||
| July 29, 2011 | Uranus Bow Shock Single | Single Release on SotC Website | ||
| August 26, 2011 | Grand Tour Edition | Full Album Release on the SotC Website | ||
| September 2, 2011 | Standard Edition | |||
| September 3, 2011 | Legacy Edition |