A new sonification of a black hole empowers us to listen to its cacophonous echoes through space. Space is both noisy and silent, depending on how you’re listening. Humans experience sound that is transmitted by pressure waves, which travel to our ears via vibrating molecules of air. In space, the lack of air molecules prevents us from hearing the music of the universe, which comes from celestial electric and magnetic fields. Scientists are regularly exploring new ways to experience data from space, and many techniques have been employed to create stellar soundscapes.
The robotic spacecraft sent into the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth, known as the Van Allen Probes, recorded plasma waves in space, some of which happen in a frequency audible to humans. Those recordings simply needed to be converted into sound waves so those of us on Earth could marvel at an eerie chorus of wails, howls, and chirps. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, tracked the oscillation frequencies of Red Giant Stars to produce audible rhythms that resembled a symphonic warm-up. On some planets, taking recordings is more feasible, since many have some atmosphere. On Mars, for example, NASA has recorded wind and other ambient noise.
bleeds into the black hole, it occasionally produces bursts of radiation or “light echoes.” In the sonification, those light echoes resemble staccato drum beats of various volume. The background stars also contribute to the clip. Each star is represented by a different musical note.
X-Rays of Invisible Echoes
The concentric rings of light echoes surrounding black hole V404 Cygni are unusual and were newsworthy in and of themselves when they were first discovered in 2015 by researchers using the Swift telescope. As with many astronomical phenomena, the rings cannot be seen with the naked eye, which makes visualizations and sonifications all the more important. To create the image and the audio, researchers examined the black hole’s X-ray spectra to discern its size, composition, and distance.
NASA’s Chandra X-Ray observatory is an in-orbit telescope which is designed to capture X-ray emissions from the hottest regions of the universe. Through its Universe of Sound project, Chandra has created a number of awe-inspiring audio recordings of different features throughout space.