More like a DONK
May 26, 2017 4:55 PM Subscribe
In October 2014, one of the Narrow Angle Cameras observing the moon's surface aboard the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recorded a wild, jittery image. The cause of this was determined to be vibrations from a collision with a micrometeoroid at approximately 7 km/s, which fortunately didn't damage the spacecraft or camera. Astronomer Dr. Alex Parker has processed the captured image to produced an audio reconstruction of the strike. SPANG.
Like people in the twitter feed say - I don't hear a 'spang' more than a 'dunk' or 'donk'*. 'Spang' implies more of an open hit onto something like a metal sheet with some oscillation afterwards. Not too relatively dense things hitting each other without much deformation/flapping about.
(cue Crocodile Dundee 2 "What's a Donk" joke, but lets skip past that).
posted by Brockles at 5:15 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
(cue Crocodile Dundee 2 "What's a Donk" joke, but lets skip past that).
posted by Brockles at 5:15 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is so cool! That being said, why did an astronomer try to reproduce a sound that couldn't have been made since it happened in space?
posted by ActingTheGoat at 6:20 PM on May 26, 2017
posted by ActingTheGoat at 6:20 PM on May 26, 2017
That being said, why did an astronomer try to reproduce a sound that couldn't have been made since it happened in space?
The sound vibrations are in the spacecraft itself. Sound doesn't need *air* per se, it just needs a medium.
posted by tclark at 6:22 PM on May 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
The sound vibrations are in the spacecraft itself. Sound doesn't need *air* per se, it just needs a medium.
posted by tclark at 6:22 PM on May 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
That gave me a really uneasy feeling of being inside a small, windowless metal box hurtling through the void and then hearing a sudden, muffled DOONK and not knowing that the hell it is. Thanks!
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:26 PM on May 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:26 PM on May 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
So a meteoroid hit a spacecraft, and there were no instruments onboard to hear it—but it made a sound!
posted by panic at 6:35 PM on May 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by panic at 6:35 PM on May 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
cue Crocodile Dundee 2 "What's a Donk" joke, but lets skip past that
Yes, skip right past it, straight into Put A Donk On It.
posted by radwolf76 at 6:53 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yes, skip right past it, straight into Put A Donk On It.
posted by radwolf76 at 6:53 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
So a meteoroid hit a spacecraft, and there were no instruments onboard to hear it—but it made a sound!
They say "In space, no one can hear you scream," but apparently if you scream loud enough, and if enough data can be salvaged from the wreckage of your ship's computers, there's a tiny chance that one or more of the spacecraft's cameras and other sensors vibrated just enough to simulate a reasonable approximation of your final expressions of terror.
It would seem natural for the screamer to find such an achievement of little consolation, given that decades, centuries, or even millennia may have passed between you becoming the equivalent of an alien's "boil in a bag" dinner or convenient incubator for said alien's young and someone hearing your final cries for help. On the bright side, though, one can at least be content in the fact that while the scientist who succeeds in such a simulation will be praised for their skill, creativity, and inventiveness, they will also forever be considered a bit of a weirdo by their peers.
posted by chambers at 7:11 PM on May 26, 2017 [9 favorites]
They say "In space, no one can hear you scream," but apparently if you scream loud enough, and if enough data can be salvaged from the wreckage of your ship's computers, there's a tiny chance that one or more of the spacecraft's cameras and other sensors vibrated just enough to simulate a reasonable approximation of your final expressions of terror.
It would seem natural for the screamer to find such an achievement of little consolation, given that decades, centuries, or even millennia may have passed between you becoming the equivalent of an alien's "boil in a bag" dinner or convenient incubator for said alien's young and someone hearing your final cries for help. On the bright side, though, one can at least be content in the fact that while the scientist who succeeds in such a simulation will be praised for their skill, creativity, and inventiveness, they will also forever be considered a bit of a weirdo by their peers.
posted by chambers at 7:11 PM on May 26, 2017 [9 favorites]
I remember reading a short story years ago about somebody extracting ancient sounds from a piece of pottery.
A few minutes of searching reveals that it was Time Shards by Gregory Benford.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:50 PM on May 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
A few minutes of searching reveals that it was Time Shards by Gregory Benford.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:50 PM on May 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
metafilter: a really uneasy feeling of being inside a small, windowless metal box hurtling through the void
posted by lalochezia at 8:24 PM on May 26, 2017
posted by lalochezia at 8:24 PM on May 26, 2017
That gave me a really uneasy feeling of being inside a small, windowless metal box hurtling through the void and then hearing a sudden, muffled DOONK and not knowing that the hell it is.
And that's the only sound that ever occurs through your entire journey.
posted by rhizome at 9:01 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
And that's the only sound that ever occurs through your entire journey.
posted by rhizome at 9:01 PM on May 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
It sounds like a coconut. The universal sound of the head bonk.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:27 PM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:27 PM on May 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sure there are sounds of screams in space. They are just very quiet and travel at the speed of the molecules of air expelled from your lungs. It's really hard to hear the minute variations in the density of that last exhalation of that poor sod you just blasted bouncing off your space-screen as you fly through their atomized remains.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:26 PM on May 26, 2017
posted by zengargoyle at 10:26 PM on May 26, 2017
In space no one can hear you scream, but NASA can hear you donk.
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:53 AM on May 27, 2017
posted by Bringer Tom at 6:53 AM on May 27, 2017
Spang, as anyone would know, can only mean “the sound a shovel makes when it hits you full in the face”.
posted by scruss at 7:17 AM on May 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 7:17 AM on May 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
the sound a shovel makes when it hits you full in the...
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:01 AM on May 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:01 AM on May 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
First of all this is freaking amazing!
Secondly, the medium of sound transmission was the satellite itself. As any Ableton Live user knows, the satellite itself is basically a Corpus instrument and has its own resonance, like the body of a cello.
I demand that NASA release the plans for the satellite so that we may model its resonance and recreate the natural sound, such as it is, of a micro meteorite hitting an object in space.
posted by djrock3k at 9:17 PM on May 28, 2017
Secondly, the medium of sound transmission was the satellite itself. As any Ableton Live user knows, the satellite itself is basically a Corpus instrument and has its own resonance, like the body of a cello.
I demand that NASA release the plans for the satellite so that we may model its resonance and recreate the natural sound, such as it is, of a micro meteorite hitting an object in space.
posted by djrock3k at 9:17 PM on May 28, 2017
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posted by slater at 4:57 PM on May 26, 2017