Scientists Turn 16 Minutes of Cassini Plasma Waves Into 28.5-Second Saturn-Enceladus Audio
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 6
Scientists Turn 16 Minutes of Cassini Plasma Waves Into 28.5-Second Saturn-Enceladus Audio
3 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 6
Summary
Cassini data from one of its closest Saturn dives, recorded two weeks before the probe’s 2017 plunge, has been converted into a 28.5-second audio clip from 16 minutes of plasma-wave measurements.
The signals were electrostatic plasma waves—not sound in space—detected by Cassini’s Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument as they traveled along magnetic field lines linking Saturn and Enceladus.
Researchers said the finding showed Saturn responding to Enceladus, whose geyser-driven activity continuously feeds energy into the system, by launching plasma-wave signals across hundreds of thousands of miles.
The converted recording carries an auroral-hiss signature and marked the first observation of that pattern near Saturn itself rather than during close flybys of Enceladus.
The result, detailed in two 2018 Geophysical Research Letters papers, underscores how Cassini data is still yielding new insights nearly 10 years after the mission ended.