Democracy Dies in Darkness

Want to listen to space noise? NASA wants to hear from you.

By
April 23, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
The Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas project uses data from five NASA satellites that launched in 2007. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab)
2 min

Note to citizen scientists: NASA wants your help listening in on the universe — specifically, on the sounds of low-frequency waves generated by solar particles colliding with “Earth’s magnetic environment.”

The goal is for volunteers to assist the space agency’s scientists in identifying important features within the cacophony.

Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas (HARP) is now open to citizen scientists. HARP uses data from five NASA satellites that launched in 2007 to help study auroras, which occur when solar particles run into Earth’s bubblelike magnetic field, or magnetosphere.