Jouer de la harpe avec les Anneaux de Saturne
Sure, you've seen Saturn's rings -- but have you ever heard them?
Well then please take this opportunity to play
Saturn's rings like a
harp.
In the
featured sonification, increasing brighter regions of Saturn's central
B-ring play as increasingly higher
pitched notes.
With a computer browser, click anywhere on the image to begin,
and pluck consecutive strings by sliding the spacecraft icon's
magnetometer boom across the strings.
Both manual and automatic
modes are possible.
The
featured natural-color image was taken by the
late
Cassini spacecraft in 2017 July as it
grazed Saturn's rings and took the highest-resolution ring images ever.
The reason why the mostly
water-ice rings have a tan hue -- instead of
white -- is currently a topic of research.
Played in minor harmony, a
different false-color version of the same image appears where regions with a greater abundance of water ice appears more red.