Listen to space with these new sonification videos

You can “listen to space” with these new sonification videos, where NASA has translated images into musical notes. Sonification credit for all videos is NASA/ CXC/ SAO /K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida).

NASA published this original article on June 20, 2023. Edits by EarthSky.

Listen to space!

As you know, astronomers often look at objects in space through multiple telescopes. And different telescopes can detect different types of light. Therefore, each brings its own pieces of information to what it’s observing. In a similar way, musicians can play different musical notes together to create harmonies that are impossible with single notes alone.

In the past few years, NASA has been producing sonifications of astronomical data. This project takes the space telescopes’ digital data – most of which is invisible to our unaided eyes – and translates them into musical notes and sounds. Now they can be heard rather than seen. Each layer of sound in these sonifications represents particular wavelengths of light from various combinations of four space telescopes. Those telescopes are the Chandra X-ray Observatory, James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope.

R Aquarii

In the video above, the system called R Aquarii contains two stars – a white dwarf and a red giant – in orbit around each other. In a composite visual image, Hubble data (red and blue) reveal spectacular structures. These structures are evidence of outbursts generated by the pair of stars buried at the center of the image. X-rays from Chandra show a jet from the white dwarf banging into the material surrounding it and creating shock waves.

In the sonification of R Aquarii, the piece evolves as a radar-like scan of the image, clockwise starting at the 12 o’clock position. The volume changes in proportion to the brightness of sources in Hubble’s visible light and Chandra’s X-ray image. Meanwhile, the distance from the center dictates the musical pitch (higher notes are farther out).

The deep thuds toward the four corners are “diffraction spikes,” which are artifacts from the bright central star. Listeners can hear jets from the white dwarf as the cursor travels near the two and eight o’clock positions. The ribbon-like arcs that Hubble captured create a rising and falling melody that sounds similar to a set of singing bowls. (Metal bowls that produce different sounds and tones when struck with a mallet.) The Chandra data sound more like a synthetic and windy purr.

Stephan’s Quintet

In Stephan’s Quintet, four galaxies move around each other, held together by gravity. Meanwhile, a fifth galaxy sits in the frame but is actually at a much different distance. A visual image of Stephan’s Quintet contains infrared light from the James Webb Space Telescope (red, orange, yellow, green, and blue). Plus, there’s additional data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (red, green, and blue) and X-ray light from Chandra (light blue).

A sonification of these data begins at the top and scans downward. As the cursor moves, the pitch changes in relationship to the brightness in different ways. The background galaxies and foreground stars in the visual images Webb detects are mapped to different notes on a synthetic glass marimba. Meanwhile, crash cymbals represent stars with diffraction spikes. The galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet themselves sound like smoothly changing frequencies as the scan passes over them. A synthetic string sound represents the X-rays from Chandra, which reveal a shock wave that has superheated gas to tens of millions of degrees.

M104

Messier 104 (M104 for short) lies about 28 million light-years from Earth. It’s one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. We see the galaxy angled nearly edge-on, allowing a view of its bright core and wrapping spiral arms.

Spitzer’s infrared view of M104 shows a ring of dust circling the galaxy that pierces through the obscuring dust in Hubble’s optical-light image. Spitzer also sees an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring. The Chandra X-ray image shows hot gas in the galaxy and point sources that are a mixture of objects within M104. It also includes quasars in the background. The Chandra observations show that diffuse X-ray emission extends over 60,000 light-years from the center of the M104. (The galaxy itself spans 50,000 light-years across.)

In sonifying these data, we can listen to each type of light either separately or together. Either option begins at the top and scans toward the bottom of the image. The brightness controls the volume and the pitch, meaning the brightest sources in the image are the loudest and highest frequencies. The data from the three telescopes are mapped to different types of sounds. The X-rays from Chandra sound like a synthesizer. Spitzer’s infrared data are strings. And optical light from Hubble has bell-like tones. The core of the galaxy, its dust lanes and spiral arms, and point-like X-ray sources are all audible features in the sonification of these data.

Want to listen to more? You may also enjoy Sounds of space: Jingle, pluck and hum and The sounds of space images.

Bottom line: Listen to space with three new sonification videos from NASA highlighting the star system R Aquarii, the galaxy cluster Stephan’s Quintet and galaxy M104.

Via NASA