Are.na

Spooky Sounds from Across the Solar System

Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:50:34 -0400

Soaring to the depths of our universe, gallant spacecraft roam the cosmos, snapping images of celestial wonders. Some spacecraft have instruments capable of capturing radio emissions. When scientists convert these to sound waves, the results are eerie to hear.

In time for Halloween, we’ve put together a compilation of elusive “sounds” of howling planets and whistling helium that is sure to make your skin crawl.

Listen to a few here and visit our Soundcloud for more spooky sounds.

Cassini Ring Crossing

This eerie audio represents data collected by our Cassini spacecraft, as it crossed through the gap between Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017, during the first dive of the mission’s Grand Finale. The instrument is able to record ring particles striking the spacecraft in its data. In the data from this dive, there is virtually no detectable peak in pops and cracks that represent ring particles striking the spacecraft. The lack of discernible pops and cracks indicates the region is largely free of small particles.

Voyager Tsunami Waves in Interstellar Space

Listen to this howling audio from our Voyager 1 spacecraft. Voyager 1 has experienced three “tsunami waves” in interstellar space. This kind of wave occurs as a result of a coronal mass ejection erupting from the Sun. The most recent tsunami wave that Voyager experienced began in February 2014, and may still be going. Listen to how these waves cause surrounding ionized matter to ring like a bell.

Voyager Sounds of Interstellar Space

Our Voyager 1 spacecraft captured these high-pitched, spooky sounds of interstellar space from October to November 2012 and April to May 2013.

The soundtrack reproduces the amplitude and frequency of the plasma waves as “heard” by Voyager 1. The waves detected by the instrument antennas can be simply amplified and played through a speaker. These frequencies are within the range heard by human ears.

When scientists extrapolated this line even further back in time (not shown), they deduced that Voyager 1 first encountered interstellar plasma in August 2012.

Plasma Sounds at Jupiter

Ominous sounds of plasma! Our Juno spacecraft has observed plasma wave signals from Jupiter’s ionosphere. The results in this video show an increasing plasma density as Juno descended into Jupiter’s ionosphere during its close pass by Jupiter on February 2, 2017.

Roar of Jupiter

Juno’s Waves instrument recorded this supernatural sounding encounter with the bow shock over the course of about two hours on June 24, 2016. “Bow shock” is where the supersonic solar wind is heated and slowed by Jupiter’s magnetosphere. It is analogous to a sonic boom on Earth. The next day, June 25, 2016, the Waves instrument witnessed the crossing of the magnetopause. “Trapped continuum radiation” refers to waves trapped in a low-density cavity in Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

Visit the NASA Soundcloud for more spooky space sounds: https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sets/spookyspacesounds

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Looking Around: American Foursquares

Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:18:11 -0400

mcmansionhell:

No single-family home (besides, perhaps, the ranch or the McMansion) is as instantly recognizable as the American Foursquare. Named both for its boxy exterior as well as its neat, cubic interior plan, American Foursquares were trademarks of early suburban domesticity beginning around the 1890s, remaining relatively popular until the 1920s when they were overtaken in popularity by the smaller, more economical Minimal Traditional style.

The Foursquare is notable for being one of the first affordable, middle-class home types to feature both electricity and a standard sink-toilet-bath bathroom, amenities previously afforded only to the elite.

Early, Highly ornamental Foursquare home with many transitional Queen Anne-style details. From Lambert’s Book of Suburban Architecture, 1894. Public Domain.

Foursquares are found most commonly in first and second generation suburbs. The archetypal Foursquare features a full-width front porch, a low-pitched hipped roof, and one or more dormers (also usually hipped.)

Typical American Foursquare from a 1915 Montgomery Ward Homes catalog. 1915. Public Domain.

The Foursquare is both a type of plan and a distinct building “style” (or form), which can lead to confusion if one wants to identify a Foursquare by exterior details alone. For this reason, front-gabled “foursquares”, while relatively common, are usually misidentified, even though their plans may be identical to their hipped-roofed counterparts.

A front-gabled home from the same Montgomery Ward 1915 catalog with a Foursquare interior plan. Public Domain.

Plan

The most common Foursquare plan features four main rooms on both floors. The front two rooms are usually an entryway (or hall), with a staircase leading to the upper floors, and a living room or parlor. Later examples often place the staircase between the entrance hall and the kitchen, as seen in the first Montgomery Ward example. The second story most commonly has a central hall, three or four bedrooms, and a bathroom.

1918 Sears Catalog showing a typical American Foursquare plan. Public Domain.

Architectural Style

The Foursquare was a versatile form, easily well-adapted to many different styles of architectural detail. Most Foursquares owned by working-class folks were plain, with little to no ornate detailing. More lush examples feature details from contemporary architectural movements, especially the Craftsman and Prairie styles.

A plain, relatively unadorned Foursquare from a 1916 Gordon Van Tine catalog. Public Domain.

The Langston: A Craftsman-styled Foursquare from the 1918 Sears Catalog. Note the low pitched roof, extended eaves with exposed rafters, and the ornate porch columns. Public Domain.

The Prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries, such as Walter Burley Griffin, was very influential on Foursquare houses, particularly in the Midwest. (Wright himself drew up plans for affordable prefabricated houses, his American System-Built Homes.)

Prairie Style: Walter Burley Griffen, Gauler Twin Houses, prototypes for speculative houses built for developer John Gauler. Chicago, IL (1908.) Photo by IvoShandor (CC BY 3.0)

Many features of the common Foursquare borrow from the Prairie style, including their low-pitched hipped rooflines, relatively modern, economical form, and wide, boxed eaves.

Three heavily Prairie-influenced Foursquares from a 1916 Gordon van Tine catalog. Note the low-pitched rooflines, and extended boxed eaves.

From Left to Right: note the massive piers and material choice on House 1; on House 2, the playful upturned eaves (common in 1890s Prairie style houses, such as the Edward R. Hills House by Frank Lloyd Wright); House 3 exhibits an explicitly Prairie style side-porch and a more streamlined form with its absence of dormers.)

The End of Foursquares

The American Foursquare remained popular for almost four decades, providing an economical, thoughtfully designed home for America’s middle-class families. Its contemporary, the bungalow, would eventually overtake it in popularity in the 1910s and 1920s. The Foursquare was one of the last popular house types to feature a mostly closed floorplan.

The Great Depression halted homebuilding, and the homes that were built at the time were much smaller out of financial necessity, hence the dawn of the small Minimal Traditional houses of the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

While the Craftsman bungalow has seen a resurgence in popularity as an architectural form in the last decade, the Foursquare, despite its economical allocation of space suitable for larger families, has yet to see a revival.

Foursquares were popular in first and second generation suburbs because they enabled families to build more house on a smaller lot. Their square form was as much a stylistic choice as it was a result of economical construction and economical structural savviness. Lot size, which increased as people moved further and further away from the center, became (and remains) less of a constraint, which is perhaps why the Foursquare hasn’t had the same resurgence as the more-sprawling bungalow.

Still, existing Foursquares have proven to be enjoyable houses for those who live in them, and continue to maintain their position as one of the most iconic and instantly recognizable forms of the American home.

If you like this post, and want to see more like it, consider supporting me on Patreon! Also JUST A HEADS UP - I’ve started posting a GOOD HOUSE built since 1980 from the area where I picked this week’s McMansion as bonus content on Patreon!

Not into small donations and sick bonus content? Check out the McMansion Hell Store ! 100% of the proceeds from the McMansion Hell store will go to help victims of the recent hurricanes.

Copyright Disclaimer: All photographs are used in this post under fair use for the purposes of education, satire, and parody, consistent with 17 USC §107. Manipulated photos are considered derivative work and are Copyright © 2017 McMansion Hell. Please email kate@mcmansionhell.com before using these images on another site. (am v chill about this)

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