Is space sound? NASA has released new audio that provides some clues – and it is quite haunting.
The audio was released May 4th and is the sound of a black-hole from the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. This massive structure, which measures 11 million light years across, is located approximately 240 million light years from Earth. Astronomers recorded the pressure waves the black hole generated through the cluster’s hot gases to create the audible sound. Scientists extracted those sound waves from the black hole’s hot gas and increased their scale by 57 and58 octaves.
NASA released the following statement: “In some ways this sonification is unlike anything else done before.” “…[ The sound waves are heard at frequencies 144 and 288 quadrillions times the original frequency.
The sounds of the black holes can be heard when they are pushed up to human frequencies. They sound almost like a haunting ghost’s wail or deep ocean calls from a pod whales.
Although this sound of space is not new, NASA has been identifying the Perseus cluster with sound since 2003. Perseus galaxy clusters are the most gravitationally bound objects in all of the universe. They contain hundreds of galaxies and massive clouds of hot gases that can reach temperatures of more than 180 million degrees Fahrenheit. All that material makes it possible for sound waves and light waves to travel through.
NASA scientists also released the sounds of Perseus. They also released a sonification (or M87) of Messier 87’s famous black hole.
This black hole is far more pitchy than Perseus’. It can be best described as ambient music with light-chimes, rather than the usual perseus sound. NASA’s visualization of the sound is equally impressive. It contains scans of NASA’s black hole, optical light from Hubble Space Telescope, and radio waves from Atacama Large Millimeter Array (Chile) It also includes an image of the location of the black hole and a photo of a jet M87 produced.
These audio files and visualizations were made available during NASA’s Black Hole Week, May 2-6. NASA also released visualizations and information on black holes during NASA’s Black Hole Week, which ran from May 2 to 6.
