The sounds from Jupiter are extra-ordinarily beautiful. At times the recording sounds like a giant meditation gong, at other times like the sound of a beacon at the edge of the universe. Let the sounds from the largest planet of the solar system be a wake-up call to your unconscious mind.

Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun, is the largest and most massive planet in the solar system. In mass alone, it is three hundred times the mass of the Earth. Jupiter is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. The entire planet is made of gas, with no solid surface under the atmosphere. The pressures and temperatures deep in Jupiter are so high, that gases form a gradual transition into liquids which are gradually compressed into a metallic "plasma" in which the molecules have been stripped of their outer electrons. The winds of Jupiter are a thousand meters per second relative to the rotating interior. Jupiter's magnetic field is four thousand times stronger than Earth's and is tipped 11° of axis spin. This causes the magnetic field to wobble, which has a profound effect on trapped electronically charged particles. The plasma of charged particles is accelerated beyond the magnetosphere of Jupiter to speeds of tens of thousands of kilometers per second. It is these magnetic particle vibrations that generate some of the sounds you hear on this recording.

Data from the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft suggested that a ring system around the giant planet Jupiter existed; this was confirmed by the Voyager flybys. This image you see here was taken by Voyager 2. Jupiter's rings are very bright because they are composed of fine dust, which scatters light efficiently. The main ring is 700 km (4350 mi) wide, with a broad, thick "halo" inside it.

For more information about plasma and magnetic fields and their relationship to our sound recordings from space, consult the April 1991 issue of Scientific American Magazine - article entitled "Collisionless Shock Waves".

Special thanks to our friends and contacts at various U.S National Space Agencies and Universities. This Space Recording Series is dedicated to the memory of Fred Scarf, PhD, who developed the acoustic recording project for Voyager and is directly responsible for the sounds you hear on these recordings from space.

Authentic photos made available courtesy of JPL and NASA.

Planet Profile:

Mass (kg)............................................1.90 x 10^27

Diameter (km)........................................142,800

Mean density (kg/m^3) ...............................1314

Escape velocity (m/sec)..............................59500

Average distance from Sun (AU).......................5.203

Rotation period (length of day in Earth hours).........9.8

Revolution period (length of year) (in Earth years)..11.86

Obliquity (tilt of axis) (degrees)...................3.08

Orbit inclination (degrees)..........................1.3

Orbit eccentricity...................................0.048

Mean surface temperature (K).........................120 (cloud tops)

Visual geometric albedo..............................0.44

Atmospheric components...............................90% hydrogen, 10% helium, 7% methane

Rings..............Faint ring. Infrared spectra imply dark rock fragments