Deputy Director of Development Harriet Lawrence takes charge of this week’s Current Distractions – and it’s a geek edition, featuring music in space, city stargazing, what happens when astronomy gets naughty and some xylophones.
‘In space, no one can hear you scream’
As the old saying goes… We all know it’s true thanks to science fiction classic Alien (how could we doubt Ripley and THAT CAT). Without air, there is no sound. Right?
Well of course that’s right, but space can make music if you know how to listen to it. Plasma wave data caused by Voyager leaving the heliosphere has created interstellar plasma music:
Taking this to the next level is Domenico Vicinanza, a project manager at Géant – Europe’s high-speed data network that powers Cern and the Large Hadron Collider – who has taken 37 years of data sent back from deep space by Nasa’s Voyager 1 and 2 and turned it into a duet:
Stargazing in London – surely not!
Yes – it happens. Regent’s Park, once a month. Join this intrepid band of merry star geeks – The Baker Street Irregular Astronomers – and see the wonders of the universe. Scopes and bins provided if you don’t have your own.
Yes, even the late, great Patrick Moore came to a meeting. Cat lover, cricket enthusiast and all round good egg, he was also a rather nifty xylophone player.
Listen to him play his own composition Penguin Parade:
And finally in space news…
Who knew?
Harriet Lawrence
Deputy Director of Development
The post Current Distractions appeared first on Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
