Ever wondered what a comet sounds like? Thanks to the Rosetta space probe you can now listen to one. Sort of. Hurtling through space at speeds of 18 kilometres per second, the data sent back from the probe is truly interesting.
European Space Agency (ESA) reports that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko seems to be emitting a 'song' in the form of oscillations in the magnetic field in the comet's environment. However, the song is being emitted at 40-50 millihertz, far below human hearing. To make the music audible to the human ear, the frequencies had to be increased by a factor of 10,000.
Since sound waves are unable to travel through a vacuum like space, this hum was picked up by a magnetometer experiment (RPC-Mag) when Rosetta drew within 100km of 67P/C-G in August.
"This is exciting because it is completely new to us. We did not expect this and we are still working to understand the physics of what is happening," RPC principal investigator Karl-Heinz said in a press release.
You can hear the comet's song right here: