We all know that in space no one can hear you scream, explode or collide with a neighboring galaxy. However, NASA has achieved, thanks to a new “data sonification” program, that we can have a rough idea of how some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe might sound when they are transformed into sounds of terrestrial instruments.
Listening to the sounds of space
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Center, which has been imaging distant galaxies with its Chandra X-ray Observatory for 20 years, has taken several iconic images from its archives and translated them at different frequencies of light into different shades of sound. .
This is the result of what the Crab Nebula sounds like, for example, a supernova remnant powered by a windy neutron star. In converting data to sounds from the nebula, X-ray light (blue and white) is represented by metal instruments; optical light (violet) with stringed instruments; and infrared light (pink) is represented by woodwind instruments. Sounds converge near the center of the nebula, where a rapidly spinning pulsar spews gas and radiation in all directions.
What does a supernova sound like?
This is the supernova explosion called Supernova 1987A, named for the year its first light reached Earth from the Large Magellanic Cloud. This supernova receives a special time-lapse treatment. As a graticule traverses the edge of the nova’s gaseous halo, the image gradually transforms to show the evolution of the explosion between 1999 and 2013. The brighter the halo becomes, the sharper and stronger the tones sound . The high point? Wait for the end of the video.
