What Does Space Sound Like? New Eerie NASA Recording Reveals A Cosmic Baritone

Have you ever wondered what space sounds like? Worry not, for NASA finally has the answer. While sound waves cannot travel through the vacuum of space, NASA says that space can be extremely noisy under right conditions. For instance, the hot gas surrounding a black hole at the centre of the Perseus galaxy cluster can make some noise.

In what sounds like a soundtrack for an eerie movie, NASA recently Tweeted an audio clip that represents sound in space. "The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel," NASA wrote on Twitter.

Uncredited

A black hole's soundtrack

"A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole!," the agency added. The Perseus galaxy is about 250 million light years from Earth, and the sound clip essentially represents sound waves passing through gas and plasma in this galaxy cluster.

The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e

¡ª NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) August 21, 2022

Also read: What Does The Inside Of A Black Hole Sound Like? NASA Engineers Release New Song

While these signals coming from the black hole were first seen in 2003 through NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, they have never been processed in the hearing range of the human ear until now.

NASA

"In some ways, this sonification is unlike any other done before¡­ because it revisits the actual sound waves discovered in data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory," NASA said in a statement. "In this new sonification of Perseus, the sound waves astronomers previously identified were extracted and made audible for the first time," NASA added.

Also read: Speed Of Sound On Mars Is So Slow That Human Speech Would Sound Garbled

NASA

This black hole is a baritone, for these sound waves (in their natural environment) are 57 octaves below the middle note C, Vice reported.

What do you think about the sound of a black hole? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Ferreira, B. (2022, August 22). NASA Has Captured ¡®Actual Sound¡¯ in Space and It¡¯s Honestly Terrifying. Vice.