Mars’s Soundscape Is Strangely Beautiful
Microphones have captured the whirring and pings of a hard-working rover—and the rush of a gentle Martian wind.
There’s a lovely scene in —one of the best space movies in history; don’t argue with me—when the NASA pilot tasked with saving the day hands a pair of headphones to his fellow space traveler, a physicist, who’s having a difficult time on their perilous journey through space. When the physicist puts the buds in, he and the audience of Earth: crickets, rain, the low rumble of thunder. The moment is meant to soothe the worried character, but it is also a reminder to all of us that our planet is very noisy and the rest of the solar system—the rest of the universe, really—is not. Sound, or the absence of it, is one more way our home fulfills Carl Sagan’s
