Smithsonian.com

NASA’s great at stunning visuals–like this visible-light image of three moons hanging above Saturn’s rings (admittedly, one is very small).

But it’s all so majestic and distant. For immediacy, there’s nothing like sound–the hiss of an alien atmosphere whizzing past your cockpit–to really make you feel like you’re there.

So that’s NASA’s latest offering: sound clips generated from data sent back across 600 million miles by the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Listen out for radar pings from the Huygens probe landing on Titan (Saturn’s super-sized moon) and spine-tingling warbles and moans from radio waves put out by the ringed planet’s version of the Northern Lights.

Wired’s Underwire blog has a nice post about possibly using the clips as soundtracks for sci-fi sequels. And the Inkycircus crew weighs in with the best-yet description for the unearthly sounds:

There’s a longer loop of Saturn’s song that resembles a symphony of bottle rockets let loose, slowed down 10x, and then stuck in a haunted house, where wispy ghosts moan and pull at your hair.

But don’t take their word for it–go listen. And set your phasers to stun.