Scientists are baffled by the strange and mysterious sounds recorded from comet 67P ahead of Philae landing
We did not expect this and we are still working to understand the physics of what is happening,” Karl-Heinz Glaßmeier, head of Space Physics and Space Sensorics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany, explained on the RESA Rosetta blog.
The “song” – as the scientists themselves refer to it- was in fact outside the normal range of human hearing range and has to be boosted in volume by a factor of 10,000. According to scientific theory, the comet releases neutral particles into space where they collide with high-energy particles and that’s what makes the sound. However, “the precise physical mechanism behind the oscillations remains a mystery,” according to the blog.
The sound is clearly alien in origin, claim many.
The alien sound was heard by the magnetometer experiment for the first time in August, when Rosetta drew to within 60 miles (100 km) of comet 67P.
Scientists think it may be produced in some way by the activity of the comet, as it releases neutral particles into space where they become electrically charged due to a process called ionisation. But they are unsure.