Posted on 07/02/2008 2:09:58 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
Earth emits an ear-piercing series of chirps and whistles that could be heard by any aliens who might be listening, if they're out there.
The sound is awful, a new recording from space reveals.
Scientists have known about the radiation since the 1970s. It is created high above the planet, where charged particles from the solar wind collide with Earth's magnetic field.
• Click here to hear the sounds.
It is related to the phenomenon that generates the colorful aurora, or Northern Lights.
The radio waves are blocked by the ionosphere, a charged layer atop our atmosphere, so they do not reach Earth.
That's good, because the out-of-this-world radio waves are 10,000 times stronger than even the strongest military signal, the researchers said, and they would overwhelm all radio stations on the planet.
• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Space Center.
Theorists had long figured the radio waves, which were not well studied, oozed into space in an ever-widening cone, like light from a torch.
But new data from the European Space Agency's Cluster mission, a group of four high-flying satellites, reveals the bursts of radio waves head off to the cosmos in beam-like fashion, instead.
This means they're more detectable to anyone who might be listening.
The Auroral Kilometric Radiation (AKR), as it is called, is beamed out in a narrow plane, as if someone had put a mask over a torch and left a slit for the radiation to escape.
This flat beam could be detected by aliens who've figured this process out, the researchers say.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That’s just the sound of all the liberals when they heard Rush had inked a $400M deal through 2016!
More usefully, if Earth emits these “screams,” other planets probably do, too.... Which suggests that radio telescopes can be used to identify candidate planets around other stars.
Mother Earth is screaming because we heartless humans are raping her and causing her to overheat.....(BARF)
Militant
Just an alarm to keep the curious away......
(More usefully, if Earth emits these “screams,” other planets probably do, too.... Which suggests that radio telescopes can be used to identify candidate planets around other stars.)
We already have. There are a bunch already found that possess the atmosphere that would be inducive to life.
If this was the 70’s the hippies would be introducing us to “The Song of the Earth”.
But, it’s 2008, so now it’s “screaming”.
It's probably just the daily Air America broadcasts.
Sounds caused by the solar wind colliding with the Earth’s magnetic fields and they are calling it “Earth’s screams”? Wouldn’t the same effect be recorded say from any other planet with magnetic field? For that matter even a moon?
I don’t think our magnetic field is unique is it?
So what are we waiting for?
Let's get busy building rockets to send all the tree hugging, global warming believing liberals to one!
Al Gore's the captain!
It’s the pain caused by global warming....LOL
I think it’s probably the humpback whale sounds from Star Trek 4
/s>
You mean when the earth was being threatened by a giant screeching beef log?
Sounds like my ex-wife.
The planet is having a fever...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.