Moonbell: Making The Moon Sing

Editor’s note: According to this unusual website “Moonbell” that JAXA has set up “moonbell transforms the topography of the moon into sound”. Once you click the open button, you see a small satellite or probe orbiting the Moon. As it passes over the varied topography of the moon (visualized in the upper right hand corner) music is played (also visualized – in the lower right hand corner). You can rotate the globe so as to focus your view on the probe’s orbital path. If I were not sighted, this would be an interesting way to understand what the moon “looks” like – one worth pursuing further. Indeed, if I spent some time with this I could probably differentiate ragged mountains from smooth ones, and mare from craters. Then again, to my untrained ears, the “music” that is generated sounds a lot like one of my cats walking on a piano keyboard.

Editor’s note: According to this unusual website “Moonbell” that JAXA has set up “moonbell transforms the topography of the moon into sound”. Once you click the open button, you see a small satellite or probe orbiting the Moon. As it passes over the varied topography of the moon (visualized in the upper right hand corner) music is played (also visualized – in the lower right hand corner). You can rotate the globe so as to focus your view on the probe’s orbital path. If I were not sighted, this would be an interesting way to understand what the moon “looks” like – one worth pursuing further. Indeed, if I spent some time with this I could probably differentiate ragged mountains from smooth ones, and mare from craters. Then again, to my untrained ears, the “music” that is generated sounds a lot like one of my cats walking on a piano keyboard.