For a while I thought Chris Hadfield had a monopoly on space sounds—at least, the interesting and melodious ones. But just because no one can hear you scream in space doesn’t mean there’s no sound out there. Earlier this year a Harvard professor turned supernovae sounds into songs, and Voyager I and II have both captured some creepy noises in their journey towards interstellar space. Now, NASA has released some electromagnetic recordings of the solar system captured by probes such as Voyager, INJUN 1, ISEE 1, and HAWKEYE. The songs are eerie and awesome, especially when you can associate the sound with the planet or area from which it came.

The various space probes recorded charged electromagnetic particles and radiation fluctuations from the solar wind, ionosphere, and planetary magnetosphere using plasma wave antenna. They picked up everything the human ear can hear, which makes one wonder what other sounds exist out there that we can’t hear. The frequencies were captured from Saturn’s rings, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Io, Uranus, and other places throughout the solar system.

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has been in the news a lot this past year, from a massively successful Kickstarter campaign to the recent purchase by Facebook. It’s definitely put “virtual reality” back in the zeitgeist in a way it hasn’t been since the early ’90s when clunky headsets were popping up in arcades, only to soon be shoved aside when they failed to match our holodeck expectations. Now that the technology has advanced considerably, there’s all sorts of interesting potential in the Oculus Rift…and not just freaking yourself out with a decapitation simulator. For instance, you could board the starship Voyager, as shown in the above demo.

The USS Voyager was in dire straights. After pursuing a Maquis vessel into a dangerous area of space, Captain Janeway, the crew of the Voyager, and the surviving Maquis find themselves stranded in the Delta quadrant and united in common purpose: trying to figure out how the hell to get home. They’ve got a 75-year journey ahead of them, through a hostile and unknown part of the galaxy. They even have to be careful about getting into fights, because their weaponry is limited — they’ve only got 38 photon torpedoes. Only 38! Er…give or take 85.

The Voyager 1 probe made history last month when scientists agreed that it had finally, officially ventured beyond our solar system and entered interstellar space. Even if Voyager’s distance traveled is not even a gnat’s eyelash when considered against the unfathomable scale of our universe, it was still an exciting landmark, one that reminds us that our species is capable of great accomplishments when we’re not so facedown in the mud that we lose sight of the stars.

You’ve all probably heard of the so-called “Golden Records” that were included on the Voyager craft. They contain tons of images, sounds, and information about our species and our world, designed to serve as a sort of time capsule of who and what we were at the time we sent Voyager 1 and 2 off into the void. They also contained copies of a letter from then-President Jimmy Carter, a greeting to any extraterrestrial explorers who might someday cross paths with Voyager. (Admittedly, a very unlikely scenario given the sheer size of our galaxy, and the comparative tininess of Voyager. But you never know.) While the aliens obviously wouldn’t speak English, the many different languages included on the Records would theoretically serve as a sort of Rosetta Stone to help them interpret our messages.

Legos are easily one of the greatest inventions in human history. That may be bit much, a bit too hyperbolic, but they are certainly one of better toys we’ve managed to come up with across our time on this rock. Over the years, inventive folk have proven time and time again that you can make damn near anything out of those little plastic blocks if you put your mind to it, from replicas of iconic landmarks to fantastic creatures, and even Star Wars paraphernalia. Since they’re so awesome, it makes sense that a fair amount of Lego creations are devoted to celebrating one of the other coolest things humanity has ever done, going into space. A new collection of photos of stellar Lego space recreations shows just how fantastic this combination can be, though they maybe not be exactly what you expect.

When you first think of Lego renderings of space related objects you’re probably thinking giant space shuttles, or that big ass, almost life sized X-Wing Fighter someone made a while back. These, however, are a little different, a little smaller in scale, though just as intricate and interesting as their larger counterparts. Lego artists Peter Reid and Tim Goddard have taken everyone’s favorite tiny plastic building blocks, and used them to recreate some of the more iconic moments from the space race and beyond.

Video game naysayers can say what they want, but products like Nintendo’s Wii and the Xbox Kinect have gotten people off of their ass in a way that video games have never done before, adding exercise to having fun. I mean, you burn some calories dancing around in celebration after you stomp someone’s ass at Tekken Tag, and there’s Dance Dance Revolution, but you know what I mean.

Korean designer Il-Seop Yoon is doing the same thing from the opposite angle, adding fun to exercise. The Voyager Smartmill is a concept Yoon designed for a smart treadmill (duh), which would give runners a chance to engage in other activities while burning calories. As you can see from the below picture, it’s like being the most tech-savvy hamster in the world. Someone should develop a drink dispenser that looks like one of those water-dropper things.