Mysterious music source revealed
Image courtesy of Dave King
The mysterious music is played by the stars ... some very special ones, called "pulsars".
Visit the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics to listen to more pulsars.
Pulsars (PULSating stARS) are among the most exotic objects found in the galaxy. They are the peculiar relics of massive stars that have ended their lives in a tremendously powerful explosion called "supernova". A pulsar appears to flash on and off (see the movie).
The first pulsar was discovered by a woman from Northern Ireland, Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (who was in Belfast a short while ago to give a beautiful talk about astronomy and poetry) during her PhD, in 1967. As at the discovery time people had no idea what these radio signals were, the found objects were dubbed little green men (LGM) as one possibility could have been that the sounds came from some extraterrestrial form of life.
This link takes you to an article originally presented as an after-dinner speech by Jocelyn - it's a very personal and entertaining account of the discovery: "Little Green Men, White Dwarfs or Pulsars?"
... and this is the link to "Contact" on IMDb, a movie which I always thought was inspired by Jocelyn's story. It's a charming romantic comedy, written by Carl Sagan, played by Judie Foster, and first screened in 1997 - one of my most favourite movies.
Many thanks for the person who guessed that the sounds are made by "electrical storms in venus atmosphere" - good guess. If you contact me I'd be happy to send you a consolation prize!
Miruna