Satellites deployed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have detected electromagnetic waves in space that sound eerily like the chirping of a flock of birds.
According to a recent paper posted to the website of Nature.com, a study conducted by NASA using its magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) satellites has detected rising-tone chorus waves about 1,000,000 km from Earth. Measurements by the MMS satellites identified discrete, rising-tone elements in the terrestrial neutral sheet, with frequencies frequently changing at a rate of about 100 Hz per second.
These wave-particle interactions and non-linear transfers within the chorus waves produce sounds surprisingly similar to the chirping noise made by birds during the early morning hours, NASA’s paper reports.
The paper on NASA’s findings on chorus waves in space that sound like birds chirping is available at https://nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08402-z.