Royal Palace Exhibition: Music, Sound & Imagination

From 3 July until 16 August, the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) has the honour of presenting the exhibition Science and Culture at the Royal Palace for the seventeenth time. Together with the ten Federal Scientific Institutes (FSI) and three partners closely linked to the exhibition’s theme, namely the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, this edition will be set to music.

Come find us !

Among the participating scientific institutes, the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) will present a contribution dedicated to the ESA Cluster mission, a flagship European space mission whose four spacecraft bore the evocative names Rumba, Salsa, Samba and Tango. Recently, in the spirit of the Cluster mission and its four-satellite configuration, a French scientist involved in the project has composed a four-part musical piece as an artistic reflection on the mission, which will be presented at the exhibition. Just as music is created through harmony, rhythm and interaction, the Cluster satellites worked together as an orchestrated constellation, revealing the complex dynamics between the Sun and Earth’s magnetosphere.

BIRA-IASB’s contribution invites visitors to discover the hidden music of space. From 2000 to 2024, the four Cluster spacecraft explored how the solar wind — a continuous stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun — interacts with Earth’s magnetosphere, our planet’s natural protective shield. Flying in formation on highly elliptical orbits ranging from a few hundred to 125,000 kilometres above Earth, the satellites captured the subtle electromagnetic waves and plasma phenomena that permeate near-Earth space.

A Royal Expo

The exhibition Music, Sound & Imagination is divided into three sections: music and the royal family, music and science, and music and space.

In the illustrious Grand Gallery of the Royal Palace, music (in the broadest sense of the word) fills the space. Animals, stars, the universe, works of art, documents and models are on display, alongside sheet music, sound clips and musical instruments.

Has your imagination been sparked yet?

Welcome to discover this unpublished universe!

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