The audio sounds a bit like reverberations through a hollow pipe. A couple clanks here and there can be attributed to the way Venus’s gravity affected the spacecraft, according to the ESA release, and the way that BepiColombo reacted to temperature increases as it passed the planet. (The temperature increased by some 230 degrees Fahrenheit, from -148 degrees to a balmy 50 degrees).
The teams were also able to translate into sound the fluctuations in Venus’s magnetic field, using the magnetometers aboard both spacecraft. In the audio below, one can hear how the solar wind interacts with the planet.
That data sounds a bit more… staticky? The frequency changes as BepiColombo passed into the place where Venus’s magnetosphere and the solar wind meet (0:18 in the video). The ESA said that a more detailed analysis of the data collected by both spacecraft will take place over the next several weeks.
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The Solar Orbiter caught a dramatic view of the planet’s glare, as you can see here:
The Solar Orbiter will continue to make routine swings past Venus as it bounces between the planet and the Sun, collecting data on our star’s activity over the course of the 11-year solar cycle. The orbiter will fly by Earth on November 27, the last time it will pass our pale blue dot.
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