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NASA salutes Halloween with 'Sinister Sounds of the Solar System' and a demonic sun
The moon is full, All Hallow's Eve is finally upon us, and the chill autumn air is fraught with frights. But what about the cold void beyond and its inability to carry even the slightest hint of a scream, as we've been often told by an iconic sci-fi franchise?
Well, NASA is getting into the spirit of the Halloween season with a double launch of diabolical delights straight from our solar system with "Sinister Sounds of the Solar System" to instill fear in your mortal ears, and an image of our blazing sun doing its best imitation of a grinning jack-'o-lantern.
First up is NASA's petrifying SoundCloud playlist, which includes a selection of cosmic clicks, chirps, whistles, groans, and moans gathered from the space agency's many spacecraft and probes over the decades. The list includes such favorites as "Trembling Quakes on Mars," from NASA’s Mars InSight lander; "Sounds of the Ancient Universe," courtesy of ESA's Planck spacecraft; "Tunes From the Galactic Center," via NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory; and "Swirling Auroras of Jupiter," delivered by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Next, light a candle for this horrifying Halloween image of our warming star looking suspiciously like a glaring carved pumpkin hovering in the lonely darkness of space. This special composite image displaying active regions of the sun was originally taken Oct. 8, 2014, and just re-released by NASA for the spirited season.
The intense regions of orange appear brighter due to those areas emitting more light and energy with their intricate storm of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s corona. This sinister Solar Dynamics Observatory image blends two sets of wavelengths set at 171 and 193 angstroms, normally colorized in gold and yellow.
Happy Halloween!
