24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage
Gateway to Over 3,000 UK museums, galleries and heritage attractions
Skip to navigation
The Sound Of Solar Flares To Be Explored At London's Dana Centre
By Graham Spicer
21/11/2006
Image: photo of the sun taken with special equipment showing the solar flares coming from it
Image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Courtesy NASA/ESA
Visitors to a Science Museum event will be treated to a show of truly cosmic proportions – featuring the sights and sounds of solar flares.
Six space artists, musicians and scientists will discuss and explain how these sounds are captured and what we can learn from them at the Mixing With The Stars event on November 30 2006 at the museum’s Dana Centre.
The event celebrates NASA’s STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) mission, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 25 2006.
STEREO has launched two spacecraft to orbit the sun from opposite sides to gather data and create 3D images of coronal mass ejections, a form of solar flare that affect the solar wind and can cause magnetic storms on Earth.
This was also taken from the SOHO spacecraft. Courtesy NASA/ESA
“The sun has inspired artists and scientists for thousands of years and the STEREO mission is sparking a new wave of interest,” said event organiser Holly Cave. “Anyone with an interest in music or science will be amazed to hear these sounds, see these images and find out how they can be manipulated.”
Semiconductor – artists Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt – were artists in residence at the Berkeley Space Sciences Lab (SSL), University of California, where they spent five months researching and developing new works with the scientists there.
They will be showing their resulting film, Brilliant Noise, a sound film of solar flares, and talking about how they made it. Audience members will even be able to make their own space music by manipulating the solar sounds on a computer.
Image: photo of part of the sun taken with special equipment showing the solar flares coming from it
Solar flares captured by the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft. Courtesy NASA/ESA
Artist Liliane Lijn, who also worked with SSL thanks to the Arts Council England International Artists Fellowship Scheme, will show how she makes art out of aerogel – the substance that astronauts use to catch space dust.
Chris Davis, who worked on the STEREO project’s imaging equipment, will reveal what equipment is needed for filming the sun and Don Kurtz, astrophysicist from the University of Central Lancashire, will explain what the sounds recorded from the sun actually mean.
The Dana Centre is run by the Science Museum, the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain and aims to provide exciting, informative and innovative debates about contemporary science, technology and culture. Events there are for anyone aged 18. Mixing With The Stars is free, although places should be pre-booked – call 020 7942 4040 or email tickets@danacentre.org.uk.
Dana Centre
The Dana Centre, 165 Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London, SW7 5HE, England
Related Articles
MGM 2008 - May Is Museums And Galleries Month 2008!
MGM 2008 - From Climate Change To Sport In MGM Debates
News In Brief - Week Ending January 14 2007
News In Brief- Week Ending July 23 2006
News In Brief - Week Ending July 9 2006
Dana Centre Dating Night Discusses Language Of Love
Dana Centre Light Lounge Banishes Those Winter Blues
E-news registration
E-mail story to a friend
Tell us what you think
Sheffield Metal Master Wins Museum's Inaugural Design Award
DCMS Launches Consultation Into The Future Of World Heritage Sites
Royal Society Announces Plans For 350th Anniversary
Art Website ArtisanCam Wins Children's BAFTA
Former Floorboards Of Founding Father Franklin Facilitate Funny Four
Mark Leckey Wins The 2008 Turner Prize And Scoops £25,000
Library Thief Update: Sentencing Adjourned Until January 16, 2009
Fund Aims To Realise Long-Standing Campaign For Cardiff City Museum
Culture Secretary Slaps Export Ban On George I Chandelier
Shakespeare's Globe Costumes Go On Show In Nottingham
Britglyph Art Campaign Uses Web To Make Mass Geoglyph
Inaugural Awards Ceremony Honours UK Arts Philanthropists
Rare Silver Cup Commemorating Coronation Of Charles II Is Saved For The Nation
London Fire Brigade Museum Escapes Closure - For Now
Another Busy Year For Archaeology On Orkney In 2008
Severndroog Castle To Be Restored Thanks To Lottery Grant
Campaign To Save Captain Scott's Hut Needs Another £65,000
Open Air Lab Project Launches At The Natural History Museum
Search this site
Home Page
News Page
Exhibition Page
What's On
Trails Page
Website of the Week
Letters Page
Welsh Home
Graphical Version
Copyright © 24 Hour Museum
Information published here was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared. Welsh language pages developed with CYMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.