Russian scientists record pulsar ‘voices’

Pulsars are dead stars characterized by their constant rotation and emission of strong impulses. Scientists love them for this, as pulsars are perfect beacons that can be used for navigation in space by calculating the distance between objects.

Roscosmos scientists have managed to transform pulsar impulses into acoustic waves. This was accomplished using the Spectre-R radio telescope, with its parameters serving as a basis for the experiment. A special algorithm allowed researchers to transform cosmic sounds into a real melody.

The music recording was part of RadioAstron, a project that is dedicated to studying space objects. Research was performed with an unprecedented level of accuracy down to one millionth of an arcsecond. Scientists used the Spectre-R cosmic telescope, which operated for 2.5 times as long as initially planned.

Unfortunately, connection was lost early this year, and scientists are currently trying to determine what happened. The song below was the device’s parting gift to us.