Is This Really The Sound Of A Falling Meteor? Study Reveals

Many people witnessed a meteor streaking past in the upper atmosphere and they hear mysterious crackling noises like the sound of a frying a bacon or rustling leaves as the meteors are burning up above the surface. So, are these sounds truly associated with meteors?

A study, which was published in the Nature Scientific Reports, could have uncovered a mechanism on the mysterious crackling of noises when a meteor fills the air. It was led by researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS).

What Would You Hear If A Meteor Flew By?: Have you ever heard the crackling sound of a… https://t.co/h2ZPHmNsDL

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The researchers discovered that the sounds do not come from the disturbance of air particles as the meteor thrusts them aside. The sounds come from the flashes of heat that the meteor gives off as it burns up. The meteor could burn with intense heat and its conflagration emanates much energy that it could reach the ground in the form of electromagnetic energy, also referred to as radiative heating. Once objects like grass, leaves or dark paint absorbed the pulses of energy, they heat up and expand quickly. Then, these generate pressure waves and create the crackling sounds, according to Discover.

Breaking News reports that the researchers examined their idea from a New Mexico lab. They fired pulsing light using a LED light at objects such as paint, wood, wig and dark cloths. They discovered that when they aimed the light at the objects, they generated the same sounds as to those of the meteor like whispers, rustling pops and hisses. The sounds were as low as 40 decibels (dB) when light pulses and the whispering is about 30 dB. The test confirmed their idea that meteors may be transmitting heat to objects on the ground in much quantities that make them generate sounds.