There is little doubt that the Earth is the most interesting thing within, at least, 5 light years of your present location. It has the greatest diversity of ecosystems and life (as we know it). It is mostly harmless and whether or not it has intelligent life is debatable. Nonetheless, it remains the only thing that you might stop and look at for very long if you were a space traveller passing through this solar system.
Today a new time-lapse video (via Blastr) taken on the International Space Station gives you an idea what the Earth would look like if you did a low-orbit flyover:
Earlier this week an audio recording was released of the radio waves coming from Earth’s radiation belts.
“…it’s known as “chorus.” Chorus is the term used to describe the audio version of radio signals emitted by plasma waves as they travel through the belts.
“This is what the radiation belts would sound like to a human being if we had radio antennas for ears,” Kletzing said.
Radio operators have been able to hear low-quality versions of chorus for years, but this is the first time such high-powered instrumentation has captured the sound.”
So the next time you are staring at the stars in awe and wonder, remember that you are standing on the most interesting thing in the immediate vicinity, look down a little more often!