Astronauts heard 'music' on moon's far side

[UM-Bot]

The crew of Apollo 10 recalled hearing strange 'space music' while orbiting the far side of the moon.

The peculiar incident, which took place approximately two months before Apollo 11's historic moon landing, had come as such a surprise to the Apollo 10 astronauts that they had actually debated over whether or not they should even report what they had experienced back to NASA at all.

Read More: http://www.unexplain...-moons-far-side

[Bendy Demon]

Uh-huh..sure. Couldn't possibly be a prank pulled by someone so it just HAS to be aliens.

[Space Commander Travis]

The full album, I trust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5auf9rkrac

Edited February 21, 2016 by Otto von Pickelhaube

[IBelieveWhatIWant]

Uh-huh..sure. Couldn't possibly be a prank pulled by someone so it just HAS to be aliens.

Yep, a prank that was classified. Has got the be the best "It's just a prank bro" moment in history then.

[Goodnite]

Is it possible that the music was redirected off of another heavenly planet unto the dark side of the moon? Perhaps it was caused by electro static interference from space dust passing by the CM?

[141]

T'was me Edited February 21, 2016 by YA AMAR

[jarjarbinks]

Great story

Maybe they just heard the sound of travelling forces and gravity made by the big bang.

[Uncle Sam]

Uh... the moon has no atmosphere and it is impossible for sound to be heard. There is no medium for sound to travel through.

[toast]

Uh... the moon has no atmosphere and it is impossible for sound to be heard.

Its claimed sounds have been heard in orbit, not on the Moons surface.

There is no medium for sound to travel through.

Electromagnetic radiation will do.

[Twisted Consciousness]

so Gilmore, too, heard it, recorded an album and named it after?

[Sundew]

Reminds me of the hymn This is my Father's World.

"All nature sings and, round me rings the music of the spheres."

Aliens, possibly, but I would guess its some natural electromagnetic phenomenon. Perhaps when you shut out all the noise coming from the earth, this is the background noise of space. Who knows?

[Vlawde]

Another article I read about this says it may have come from Venus and is just normal space noise. It didn't sound like any more than that when I heard it

[ChrLzs]

Jim Oberg may be over later to elaborate on this I'd bet, but the media as usual have left something out of this discussion, namely that there were other radios in use at the same time. It's a similar effect to a Theremin...

The same effect was heard by Mike Collins in Apollo 11, and was documented in his excellent book "Carrying the Fire", here ya go from Chapter 13:

There is a strange noise in my headset now, an eerie woo-woo sound. Had I not been warned about it, it would have scared the hell out of me. Stafford's Apollo 10 crew had first heard it, during their practice rendezvous around the Moon. Alone on the back side, they were more than a little surprised to hear a noise that John Young in the Command Module and Stafford in the LM each denied making. They gingerly mentioned it in their debriefing sessions, but fortunately the radio technicians (rather than the UFO fans) had a ready explanation for it: it was interference between the LM's and Command Module's VHF radios. We heard it yesterday when we turned our VHF radios on after separating the two vehicles, and Neil said that it 'sounds like wind whipping around the trees.' It stopped as soon as the LM got on the ground, and started up again just a short time ago. A strange noise in a strange place.

Given Mike's book was published in 1974, this information was hardly 'classified'... I'd be a little surprised if there was a recording available, as I don't think they carried recording capability with them and they were out of earth radio contact (happy to be proven wrong on that). So I'm guessing that any sounds on these video reports have been added for effect - nice of them to admit that...

Edited February 22, 2016 by ChrLzs

[Gecks]

Not exactly catchy is it?

[NCC1701]

There is no mention on the transcript that the sound was on the radio. Probably it was just a release of gasses from one of the multiple gas and fuel tanks on the spaceship.

[coolguy]

Very cool, i womder if they taped it., the aliens where watching them

[Codenwarra]

Two possible sources spring to mind.

1. Mutual interference between two radios on or about the same frequency producing an audio frequency heterodyne. Try it sometime with two portables on the same station and close to each other. Works a treat on AM radio.

2. Automatic gain control has been a feature of radios since the 1930s. This is negative feedback, an average voltage generated by the radio frequency amplifiers in a set is fed back into the front end of a receiver. The stronger the signal coming in, the more negative feedback. Weak signals in - very little negative feedback.

In the absence of a strong signal the AGC goes into overdrive and amplifies any radio noise that happens to be on or near the same frequency. Noise generated by the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter etc or just general interplanetary or interstellar radio noise.

[Barkinghorse]

Where's Uncle Jim ?, usually when you get a reasonably intelligent suggestion of any type of other worldy life, Uncle Jim comes riding to crush any such notion..... as if he's actually doing a job for NASA.

[Space Commander Travis]

or was it like this?

Maybe the poor friendly ETs were waiting over Devil's Mountain for a reply all this time, and eventually went away in disappointment?

[Peter B]

There is no mention on the transcript that the sound was on the radio. Probably it was just a release of gasses from one of the multiple gas and fuel tanks on the spaceship.

Sheesh, that's not a polite way to refer to the astronauts. ;-)

[Peter B]

Where's Uncle Jim ?, usually when you get a reasonably intelligent suggestion of any type of other worldy life, Uncle Jim comes riding to crush any such notion..... as if he's actually doing a job for NASA.

Codenwarra just provided a couple of "reasonably intelligent suggestions" which didn't actually require aliens. Why don't we start with explanations like that before we call in aliens?

[ChrLzs]

so my post was not clear enough? Ya know, the one that said it was indeed the first of Codenwarra's examples, namely two radio frequencies creating a 'theremin'-like effect?

sheesh.

[Derek Willis]

I remember as a kid making a "crystal" radio set and listening to the tones transmitted by Eastern European stations through the night (they stopped transmitting words and music at about midnight but transmitted a tone to prevent other people using the frequency). When the tones on similar frequencies began to drift (or your variable capacitor began to wander) you heard all manner of weird and wonderful sounds - rather like the theramin that ChrLzs mentioned. Indeed, those sounds were far more interesting than listening to the rants of communist politicians or the screeching of Bulgarian sopranos (my apologies to any Bulgarian members of UM).

[Myles]

The full album, I trust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5auf9rkrac

Listened to this album so many times start to finish. The first CD I ever bought when they came out.

[AZDZ]

CBS this morning is doing a segment on this story right now, complete with video/audio taken at the moment it occurred.

It doesn't sound like music at all, more like wind whoosssssssh-ing.

An episode of "NASA Unexplained Mysteries" about this very subject will repeat tomorrow (2/23) as part of a marathon of episodes of that show on the Science Channel. Set your DVRs NOW.

EDIT: It is online already. Start at 4:44

Edited February 22, 2016 by AZDZ