- Original Caption Released with Image:
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Click on the image for Lightning Sounds from Saturn
This audio clip was created from radio signals received by the radio and
plasma wave science instrument on the Cassini spacecraft. The bursty radio
emissions were generated by lightning flashes on Saturn and are similar to
the crackles and pops one hears on an AM radio during a thunderstorm on
Earth. This storm on Saturn occurred on January 23 and 24, 2006. The clip
compresses two hours of observations into about 28 seconds. Therefore,
every second of the audio clip corresponds to about 4 minutes, 18 seconds.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The
Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio
and plasma wave science team is based at the University of Iowa, Iowa
City.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm and the instrument team's
home page, http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/cassini/.
- Image Credit:
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NASA/JPL/University of Iowa
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