Sounds of the Solar System
What are the planets playing today?
Ever wondered what the Solar System sounds like? Well, wonder no more! We've tuned in to the celestial radio waves to bring you a cosmic auditory experience. Each planet in our celestial orchestra represents a unique note, and their positions in the Solar System translate into the perfect pitch, following the Scientific pitch notation.
Here you can check planetary positions and experience the celestial harmony. Click on any of the planets bellow to check what music they are playing today!
INSPIRATIONS
Outer wilds' captivating themes of exploration, the enigmatic interconnectedness of the universe, and the profound impact of music have been where most inspiration was drawn from.
Musica Universalis, or the Harmony of the Spheres, is one clear inspiration for this project, where the planets' positions translate into a celestiall, harmonious melody that can influence the universe.
Browsing through existing websites (like The Planets Today) featuring real-time planetary positions, sky configurations, and constellations has been incredibly helpfull and a major source of inspiration.
How does it work?
So, how does any of this work? Well, allow me to give a superficial explanation on the inner workings of this planetary jukebox.
Firstly, using Astropy's astroquery package, we fine-tune our celestial guitar by tapping into NASA's JPL Horizons. This grants us access to data on the planets' positions relative to the sun. Once we secure these celestial coordinates, we neatly categorize each planet into one of nine nonants, each representing a unique pitch in the Scientific Pitch Notation.
With pitches assigned, we kickstart the cosmic orchestra by associating each planet its corresponding note and pitch through frequency modulation. Given that each planet represents a note, it's just a matter of tweaking the frequency that brings us to the right pitch. Furthermore, to achieve the collective harmony of all planets combined, we obtain the combined tone that all the planets play together by calculating the average difference between all the frequencies of the planets.
Finally, to visualize this celestial melody, we position the planets on our canvas. We utilize the arctangent of their initial positions within their corresponding orbits; and, factoring in their orbit size and sector information, we obtain their current sector location. Allowing us to choreograph their cosmic dance in pixel-perfect harmony.
In case you want to learn more about the project's implementation, you can do so here.