APOD: Play Saturn's Rings Like a Harp (2018 Apr 24)

[APOD Robot]

Play Saturn's Rings Like a Harp

Explanation: Sure, you've seen Saturn's rings -- but have you ever heard them? Well then please take this opportunity to play Saturn's rings like a harp. In the featured sonification, increasing brighter regions of Saturn's central B-ring play as increasingly higher pitched notes. With a computer browser, click anywhere on the image to begin, and pluck consecutive strings by sliding the spacecraft icon's magnetometer boom across the strings. Both manual and automatic modes are possible. The featured natural-color image was taken by the late Cassini spacecraft in 2017 July as it grazed Saturn's rings and took the highest-resolution ring images ever. The reason why the mostly water-ice rings have a tan hue -- instead of white -- is currently a topic of research. Played in minor harmony, a different false-color version of the same image appears where regions with a greater abundance of water ice appears more red.

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[lmpr8r]

wonderful!

[aljo]

I can get the spacecraft to move, but I don't hear any sound! No problem on other videos, so not my computer at fault.

[moontrail]

I can get the spacecraft to move, but I don't hear any sound! No problem on other videos, so not my computer at fault.

In my computer it doesn't work whith the explorer 11 versión, not even the saturn rings are shown just a starred sky. It works OK with Crome.

[Case]

The link for Matt Russo has more of these wonderful tunes that link astronomy with music.
The song ‘Return to Earth’ by his band Rvnners is pretty cool, too.

[Ann]

It doesn't work on my computer. And I'm using Chrome.

Ann

[gordhaddow]

Works fine on Firefox.

[doe]

Nothing on this APOD works. They say there are rings. I don't see any rings they say there is a spacecraft. I don't see any spacecraft. I only see stars and buttons that say Major, Minor, Manual, Auto, slower, faster.

Next time make sure that the APOD works before posting.

Disappointment for sure.

Dj

[NCTom]

Works great on my firefox - Windows 10. Beautiful sound even by moving the spacecraft in a slow line straight across the rings. Hope the rest of you can find a way to enjoy it!

[orin stepanek]

I got Chrome; and it works fine! Did you click on any of the icons?

[Guest]

Not working on Internet Explorer 11.

[De58te]

Uhm, if you only see the stars and not the rings your Javascript might be disabled. (Javascript is different from Java update) In Chrome click the customize tab at the top right. Click settings. At the bottom click advanced. Privacy, scroll to Control settings. Click, and set Javascript to allowed. It is even easier to set in Internet Explorer, but I have had a new Windows 10 computer for over 2 years, that I forget how to do it. Google search for disabling Javascript.

[gustavomoretto@yahoo.com]

My favorite web page period.
But hey! Are the different piches proportional to the different brightness of the rings or at are they arbitrarily chosen by the technicians...
Big, big difference!
I'm a musician and I'm dying to knw the answer.

[bystander]

My favorite web page period.
But hey! Are the different piches proportional to the different brightness of the rings or at are they arbitrarily chosen by the technicians...
Big, big difference!
I'm a musician and I'm dying to knw the answer.

In the featured sonification, increasing brighter regions of Saturn's central B-ring play as increasingly higher pitched notes.

[Chris Peterson]

Uhm, if you only see the stars and not the rings your Javascript might be disabled. (Javascript is different from Java update) In Chrome click the customize tab at the top right. Click settings. At the bottom click advanced. Privacy, scroll to Control settings. Click, and set Javascript to allowed. It is even easier to set in Internet Explorer, but I have had a new Windows 10 computer for over 2 years, that I forget how to do it. Google search for disabling Javascript.

And there are also lots of plugins that could interfere. I don't block Javascript in general, but I have plugins that disable some scripting, block ads, block tracking. These sometimes interfere with complex HTML5 pages like this one. (I don't have a problem making today's page work, but there have been other APODs that got messed up by my plugins.)

It's one thing for a page developer to ensure that things work properly in recent releases of the most popular browsers. But there's no way to be sure that it will work in all of the thousands of individual environments that people create on their own systems.

[sleeshea]

I usually read APOD on my morning coffee break and this one is tremendous. Thanks! Not quite sure how I'm going to stop playing the rings and go back to work, but I guess I'll have to.

(oh, and I'm running Safari on a MacBook Pro - it worked great once but then when I read email and then came back, the sky was filled with stars not rings. I reloaded the page twice and the rings and music came back. I wonder if the word is out that this is so cool and the page is even more popular than usual.)

[rstevenson]

Works fine for me in a quite stock Safari in Mac OS. Also works on my iPad in Safari, though there's some pops and spits in the sound--almost like old radio! Probably overloading the sound processing chip/software/memory.

Rob

[Ann]

Wow! It works fine for me on my stationary computer at home, using my Opera browser.

Very beautiful! It really sounds like "actual" music!

Ann

[mattrusso]

The link for Matt Russo has more of these wonderful tunes that link astronomy with music.
The song ‘Return to Earth’ by his band Rvnners is pretty cool, too.

Thanks Case! We post all of our space music at system-sounds.com and you can stay in the loop on twitter @astromattrusso, got an exciting one on Jupiter coming soon!

[mattrusso]

Uhm, if you only see the stars and not the rings your Javascript might be disabled. (Javascript is different from Java update) In Chrome click the customize tab at the top right. Click settings. At the bottom click advanced. Privacy, scroll to Control settings. Click, and set Javascript to allowed. It is even easier to set in Internet Explorer, but I have had a new Windows 10 computer for over 2 years, that I forget how to do it. Google search for disabling Javascript.

And there are also lots of plugins that could interfere. I don't block Javascript in general, but I have plugins that disable some scripting, block ads, block tracking. These sometimes interfere with complex HTML5 pages like this one. (I don't have a problem making today's page work, but there have been other APODs that got messed up by my plugins.)

It's one thing for a page developer to ensure that things work properly in recent releases of the most popular browsers. But there's no way to be sure that it will work in all of the thousands of individual environments that people create on their own systems.

Thanks Chris! It does look like JavaScript blocking may be the culprit for some people. We're looking into it but for now I'd recommend trying something other than Internet Explorer.

[mattrusso]

Works fine for me in a quite stock Safari in Mac OS. Also works on my iPad in Safari, though there's some pops and spits in the sound--almost like old radio! Probably overloading the sound processing chip/software/memory.

Rob

Yes, there does seem to be a processing limitation on high speed for some mobile so definitely try it on a desktop/laptop if possible, thanks!

[HellCat]

Absolutely fantastic. I'm going to start playing much more of Russo's renditions.

For those who can't figure out how to enjoy the spectacle, perhaps THIS link could mollify them...

... for now.

Thank you Professor Russo.

[Chris Peterson]

Works fine for me in a quite stock Safari in Mac OS. Also works on my iPad in Safari, though there's some pops and spits in the sound--almost like old radio! Probably overloading the sound processing chip/software/memory.

Rob

Yes, there does seem to be a processing limitation on high speed for some mobile so definitely try it on a desktop/laptop if possible, thanks!

Runs fine on my phone (Pixel 2), and in a browser on a Raspberry Pi. Not too demanding of resources, I think.

[RJN]

At the request of the sonifier, I have now linked Matt Russo to SYSTEM Sounds on the NASA APOD.
- RJN

[RJN]

It has been pointed out to me that this APOD is now highlighted on Metafilter.
- RJN