'X-Files' Sounds Captured By Student's Microphones On Edge Of Space Leaves Scientists Baffled
MOFFETT FIELD (CBS SF) -- Sound from space captured by microphones aboard a NASA student balloon experiment has scientists searching for the source of the eerie sounds.
The unidentified sounds were recorded on the edge of space by infrasound microphone by graduate student Daniel Bowman from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ifrasound microphones are designed specifically to pick up low frequency noises.
"It sounds kind of like 'The X-Files,'" Bowman told Live Science.
The balloon and microphone floated 450-miles, and reached a height of more than 123,000 feet. It was the highest infrasound microphone recording ever taken.
The low-frequency sounds were captured as the balloon floated over New Mexico, Bowman reported.
The balloon was sent into the sky as part of the NASA and Louisiana Space Consortium-supported High Altitude Student Platform, which sent 10 baloons into space last year.
The researchers are working to determine the source of the sounds. Some of the guesses so far include a wind-farm below the flight path, ocean waves, and even noises created by the balloon itself.
