Astroblog: Heavy Metal on Titan

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Heavy Metal on Titan

Via NewScientist, this is an MP3 file that lets you hear Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" as if played on Titan and Venus. That's assuming you could find instruments and a band that could survive crushingly dense superhot sulfuric acid atmospheres (or astoundingly frigid ones). The first clips is as it sounds on Earth, then on Titan, the sound is deep and rich and finally on Venus, despite being hot and heavy, the sound is surprisingly thin and tinny (but try increasing the volume). The combination of low temperature and slightly higher pressure on Titan means that sound is transmitted more efficiently. For the full paper explaining the atmospheric effects on sound, go here.

Labels: Titan, weirdness

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:22 pm

Comments:

Heh! That is really cool!

Never thought Venus would make such a "muffled" sound before.

I imagine it must have something to do with the CO2, but then again, I am not a chemist.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:12 am

Ahh but then maybe the sound on Venus is due to the roadies not properly protecting the Marshall stacks from the intense heat and pressure and the Woofer cones are fried, the crossover electronics are cooked and that noise that comes out is the best they can manage at the sound desk :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:27 pm