If you could listen to Jupiter’s atmosphere, what would it sound like?
Jupiter is home to some gigantic storms but would we be able to actually hear them?
If we could hear Jupiter, we might be able to hear the gas giant’s cloud bands rubbing together. Image Credit: NASA
Asked by Fiona Ray
Jupiter is made of thick gas and rotates so quickly that it causes a huge amount of movement in the form of wind. This gives us perhaps a small idea to what it may sound like. Although unlike here on Earth there are no trees and leaves to rustle.
However, sound is simply the movement of vibrations. As you move deeper into the gas clouds of Jupiter the gas would get thicker. As that happens, it may be easier to ‘hear’ the bands of gas rubbing together – though, at the moment, we don’t know this for sure.
Maybe one day we’ll send a probe with a microphone to find out what Jupiter sounds like. A similar experiment was recently carried out on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with a microphone used to record the sounds of the gases escaping from the nucleus of the comet.
Answered by Josh Barker from the National Space Centre
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