Two spacecraft zipped previous Venus at almost time this week, and we’re steadily getting extra information from this uncommon double flyby. The analysis groups have even translated a few of this information into sounds, which you’ll hear under.

BepiColombo is a joint mission to Mercury by the Japanese house company JAXA and the European Space Agency, and the Solar Orbiter is a joint mission between the ESA and NASA. Neither mission is concentrated on Venus; each spacecraft wanted the planet for gravity assists to get them on the right trajectories for his or her final locations. But the groups weren’t going to cross up the chance to watch Venus from shut vary, as detailed in a current ESA blog post.

BepiColombo’s first picture of Venus got here to Earth a number of days in the past. The Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) aboard the spacecraft recorded the craft’s acceleration because it Venus whipped it round. The analysis workforce engaged on that instrument has since translated the acceleration information into audible frequencies, so we are able to truly hear BepiColombo’s transit of Venus, in a way. Check it out:

The audio sounds a bit like reverberations by way of a hole pipe. A pair clanks right here and there could be attributed to the best way Venus’s gravity affected the spacecraft, in keeping with the ESA release, and the best way that BepiColombo reacted to temperature will increase because it handed the planet. (The temperature elevated by some 230 levels Fahrenheit, from -148 levels to a balmy 50 levels).

The groups had been additionally in a position to translate into sound the fluctuations in Venus’s magnetic area, utilizing the magnetometers aboard each spacecraft. In the audio under, one can hear how the photo voltaic wind interacts with the planet.

That information sounds a bit extra… staticky? The frequency adjustments as BepiColombo handed into the place the place Venus’s magnetosphere and the photo voltaic wind meet (0:18 within the video). The ESA mentioned {that a} extra detailed evaluation of the info collected by each spacecraft will happen over the subsequent a number of weeks.

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The Solar Orbiter caught a dramatic view of the planet’s glare, as you’ll be able to see right here:

The Solar Orbiter will proceed to make routine swings previous Venus because it bounces between the planet and the Sun, gathering information on our star’s exercise over the course of the 11-year photo voltaic cycle. The orbiter will fly by Earth on November 27, the final time it can cross our pale blue dot.