Rosetta Spacecraft Detects 'Song' from Comet 67P with Set of Instruments

The Rosetta spacecraft is already revealing new insights into comets after the historic landing of its probe, Philae, on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Scientists have announced that a set of instruments on the spacecraft has picked up a mysterious "song" from the comet.

The sounds were picked up by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium, which is a suite of five instruments on the spacecraft that is orbiting the comet. It's thought that these sounds are oscillations in the magnetic field around the comet.

Yet this "song" wouldn't be audible to the human ear. It's being emitted at 40 to 50 millihertz, which is far below the range of human hearing. Yet the scientists actually made this particular song audible to humans by increasing it by 10,000 times.

"This is exciting because it is completely new to us," said Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, head of the Space Physics and Space Sensorics at the Technical University of Braunchschweig, Germany, in a news release. "We did not expect this and we are still working to understand the physics of what is happening."

The set of instruments that picked up the sound provide a wide variety of complementary information about the plasma environment surrounding the comet. Plasma is an electrically conductive gas that can carry magnetic fields and electrical currents. These instruments were designed to study a number of phenomena, including the interaction of the comet with the solar wind, which is a continuous stream of plasma emitted by the sun; changes of activity on the comet; the structure and dynamics of the comet's tenuous plasma atmosphere, known as the coma; and the physical properties of the comet's nucleus and surface.

Now that Philae has touched down, though, it's likely that Rosetta will provide even more information about the comet.

Want to hear the new song for yourself? You can check it out here.