Space Looks Cool, But What Does It Sound Like?

NASA’s great at stunning visuals--like this visible-light image of three moons hanging above Saturn’s rings (admittedly, one is very small).

But it’s all so majestic and distant. For immediacy, there’s nothing like sound--the hiss of an alien atmosphere whizzing past your cockpit--to really make you feel like you're there.

So that’s NASA’s latest offering: sound clips generated from data sent back across 600 million miles by the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Listen out for radar pings from the Huygens probe landing on Titan (Saturn's super-sized moon) and spine-tingling warbles and moans from radio waves put out by the ringed planet’s version of the Northern Lights.

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Wired’s Underwire blog has a nice post about possibly using the clips as soundtracks for sci-fi sequels. And the Inkycircus crew weighs in with the best-yet description for the unearthly sounds:

There’s a longer loop of Saturn’s song that resembles a symphony of bottle rockets let loose, slowed down 10x, and then stuck in a haunted house, where wispy ghosts moan and pull at your hair.

But don’t take their word for it--go listen. And set your phasers to stun.