There really is a music of the spheres.
A group of musicians are working with an astrophysicist to put together a performance built around signals from space recorded over the last 40 years. Commissioned by NASA, the musical production "Sun Rings" is a collaboration between the string group Kronos Quartet and University of Iowa researcher Donald A. Gurnett.
"Music is a very large part of humanity, and one of the things that we're finding is that there are musical elements in that places we never thought we would find them," said David Harrington, artistic director and founding member of Kronos, in a telephone interview. "Sun Rings is going to be a perfect example of that."
Based in San Francisco, Kronos is a string quartet that prides itself on innovation and a unique artistic vision. The group has been working with Gurnett for the last few years to produce the Sun Rings, which is set to debut Oct. 26 at the University of Iowa's Hancher Auditorium. The 90-minute performance will incorporate recordings of space sounds into a string performance that runs alongside a visual presentation.
"I find it fascinating that nature can make all this music in the universe, even if it's not all on Earth," Gurnett told SPACE.com. "The whole Solar System is full of these signals."
The sounds are created by the vibrations of charged particles in a planet or star's atmosphere or magnetic field, and can be picked up using a radio antenna attached to a satellite or passing space probe. Most occur in the form of plasma waves, which propagate through gaseous plasma made up of electrons and positively charged ions. The study of plasma waves can help researchers measure plasma effects on a planet's magnetic field and its orientation with respect to rotation.
Such signals are produced on Earth during lightning flashes (which sound like high-pitched whistles) or the interactions of the charged particles that make up the aurora borealis, or northern lights (which whistle and pop akin to Star Wars robot R2D2).
Gurnett has spent the last 40 years recording these sounds from NASA spacecraft, including Voyager, Galileo, Cassini and others in Earth orbit. The recordings, on large 14-inch reels of tape, fill a 50,000. Some of the signals they hold, he said, can only be received in space because the plasma waves that generate them can't get through the Earth's ionosphere.
"He's been building [musical] instruments this whole time, though I don't think he would say so," Harrington said of Gurnett's research in building plasma wave receivers. "Talking to him is like talking to Galileo, and you really have a sense that he's inspired by nature and life."
Gurnett said he's enjoyed working with Harrington and Sun Rings composer Terry Riley, and is looking forward to seeing how Kronos combines his recorded sounds with music and video for the performance.
Following the October debut, the Kronos Quartet will take Sun Rings on tour throughout the United States and Europe.
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