NEW YORK — Researchers have discovered cosmic waves that emit sounds resembling bird chirps from an area farther away than ever before. These plasma bursts, known as chorus waves, vibrate at frequencies detectable by human ears. When their signals are transformed into audio, they produce sharp, high-pitched tones similar to those of birds.

Although scientists have previously recorded such sounds in space, this recent detection marks the first time they have been captured over a distance of more than 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) from our planet, an area where these measurements had not been taken before. “This discovery presents numerous new questions about the physical phenomena that could take place in this region,” remarked Allison Jaynes, a space physicist from the University of Iowa who was not directly involved in the research.

The precise mechanism causing these waves remains uncertain, although researchers suspect it may be related to Earth’s magnetic field. Chorus waves have been detected by radio antennas over the years, including experiments conducted at a research station in Antarctica dating back to the 1960s. NASA’s Van Allen Probes have also captured these high-pitched sounds from Earth’s radiation belts, albeit from a closer vantage point than the recent findings.

NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale satellites, launched in 2015 to study magnetic interactions between Earth and the sun, detected the latest chorus wave emissions. These findings were published on Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature. Chorus waves are not only found on Earth but have also been observed in the vicinity of other planets like Jupiter and Saturn. They are capable of generating high-energy electrons, which can disrupt satellite communications.

“They represent some of the most powerful and important waves present in space,” stated Chengming Liu, a research author from Beihang University, via email. The detected waves emerged from a region where Earth’s magnetic field appears to be elongated, which was an unexpected discovery for scientists. This revelation sparks further inquiries about the origins of these chirping sounds. “It’s incredibly intriguing and thought-provoking,” Jaynes commented. “We certainly need to collect more information about these occurrences.”