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Music

That Speeding Comet We Landed On is Making Music

...And humans here on Earth are already remixing it.

An image of the neck region of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenkovia

Whether or not Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko approves of Vangelis's ESA-commissioned soundtrack, the vocal space projectile is making music of its own: “Rosetta’s Plasma Consortium (RPC) has uncovered a mysterious ‘song’ that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is singing into space,” ESA Operations announced, after Rosetta spacecraft’s celebrated success earlier this week. “We did not expect this and we are still working to understand the physics of what is happening,” explained Karl-Heinz Glaßmeier, at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany.

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The sounds were recorded as the Philae probe came within 62 miles of the comet using five instruments on board the the Rosetta spacecraft. Although at 40-50 millihertz, the comet’s tune is far below the audible range of human hearing, German composer Manuel Senfft has sonified it for ESA’s SoundCloud.

Already, musical artists have gifted up a flurry of remix reactions to the comet's cosmic composition. Take Flawless's R&B mash-up, for instance, a space ballad worthy of Daft Punk's Interstellar 5555. Bang your head to Renovatio.'s comet club music, which sounds an awful lot like early Plastikman. Or bliss out to RainbowShadow's 80% slowed-down track, which envisions the song as something straight out of Solaris.

It might just be the result of "oscillations in the magnetic field in the comet's environment," as the ESA explains it, but we read Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko loud and clear.

Related:

Watch: The Soundtracked Rosetta Landing, Composed by the Guy Who Wrote "Chariots of Fire"

NASA's New Sound Library Is As Fantastic As You'd Imagine

Melodies And Celestial Visions From Outer Space: An Interview With Mondkopf and Trafik