Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Hearing the Stars Sing

The ancients were fascinated with the idea of "the music of the spheres". Sadly, there is no sound in the vast emptiness of space.

But I've stumbled on a substitute. Here is a web site that is about the planets making a "tune".

The only control is to speed up the planets, i.e. increase the tempo.

Obviously the planetary distances are not to scale, but I'm assuming the "tune" is quasi-realistic in that the it is plucking at a rate related to actual orbital time. The overall effect is not unpleasant. It even a little eerie and mystical sounding.

Update April 21: The Houston Symphony has worked with NASA to put together a presentation of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" with imagery from NASA. Here's the result:

2 comments:

kanna said...

RY,
Thanks.
That was a pleasant break this morning.

RYviewpoint said...

Kanna: I added a video that you might enjoy as well. It marries art and science by putting a symphonic piece with imagery from NASA.