Scientists were baffled... mysterious sounds of "unknown" origin in the Earth's atmosphere
Hot air balloons have recorded mysterious sounds of "completely unknown" origin high in Earth's atmosphere.
Scientists, including Daniel Bowman of Sandia National Laboratories in the US, have sent large balloons 6-7 meters long into the stratosphere, the relatively quiet layer of the Earth's atmosphere located between 10 and 50 km above the Earth's surface that is rarely affected by aircraft or aircraft. unrest.
In this layer of Earth's outer atmosphere, scientific instruments on balloons can pick up a range of sounds not heard anywhere else, including the natural sounds of crashing ocean waves and thunder, as well as man-made sounds, such as wind turbines or explosions.
While balloons can detect such human and environmental sounds, the scientists reported that they were also able to record some strange sounds that could not be recognized.
They discovered a mysterious noise of unknown origin. According to the team, "ultrasonic" noise is inaudible to the human ear, like infrared light that is invisible to the human eye.
He revealed that when the sound was recorded with specialized tools and sped up several thousand times, it sounded like muffled whispers.
The scientists separated this mysterious noise from other sounds picked up from the area, such as the sound of ocean waves crashing into each other.
"In the stratosphere there are mysterious ultrasound signals that occur a few times an hour, but their origin is completely unknown," Dr. Bowman said in a statement.
The balloons, originally designed to monitor volcanoes on Earth, can collect data and detect low-frequency infrasound waves using micrometers.
Scientists have tracked these balloons using the Global Positioning System (GPS) so they can sometimes travel hundreds of miles and land in hard-to-reach places.
Dr Bowman explained: “When the sun shines on the dark balloons, the air inside heats up and becomes active. This solar energy is enough to take balloons from the surface more than 20 km (66,000 ft) into the sky.”
Scientists said their balloons could also help explore other planets. And they developed a theory to use these balloons to monitor the seismic and volcanic activity of Venus through its thick atmosphere.
"A new generation of Venus balloons is now being designed that can last for more than 100 days and can change its height to move through different layers of Venus' atmosphere," the team wrote.
As part of the next phase of experiments, they hope to catalog signals similar to those found on Venus, and develop tools that can automatically identify signals of interest.
Source : websites