Sound of a close Venus flyby

A sonification of data recorded by the Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) aboard the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter spacecraft during the flyby of Venus on 10 August 2021. The accelerometer data was converted to frequency to be made audible to the human ear. The resulting sound is rich with interesting effects due to the planet’s gravity acting on the spacecraft structure, the response of the spacecraft to the rapid temperature changes, and the change in reaction wheel velocity as they work hard to compensate for these effects. The audio has been matched to the timing that the images seen in this movie were captured, in the moments after closest approach. Read more: Credit: Images: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO Audio: ESA/BepiColombo/ISA/ASI-INAF, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO ★ Subscribe: and click twice on the bell button to receive our notifications.