Here’s What NASA Discovered About the Haunting Melody of a Black Hole

[Un article déjà publié le 10 mai 2022]

In 2003, NASA astronomers discovered that the black hole in the center of the Perseus galaxies caused ripples on hot gases around it. According to the calculations carried out, these sounds are equivalent to the note of a “median do”. But 57 octaves below. This note is inaudible for the human ear. But with inventiveness, astronomers managed to translate it to music.

Listen The roars of the black hole in the pantian galaxies On this video:

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Sound translation of the black hole data in the center of the Perseée galaxies in X -ray.

This sound translation is, in a way, unique! She was even the first to be made with this methodology, NASA said in her press release. Indeed, this is the first time that we have used the real sound waves, captured by the Chandra observatory.

How to hear the sound of a black hole?

Normally, the sound cannot travel in space because of the immeasurable vacuum. Sound vibrations cannot bounce back or spread on an object. But this is not the case everywhere the universe! In regions populated by abundant quantities of gas, undulations can be spread. The pile of Perseus galaxies, dense in gas and cosmic dust, makes it possible to detect sound waves that move through the universe.

What is the “sonification” of the cosmos?

The sound waves of the black hole have been captured in data thanks to the technology of the Chandra X -ray center (CXC) and the NASA Hubble space telescope. With these data, astronomers led a “sonification”. That is to say, a translation of the waves into radial directions. Those that are in movement from the black hole to those around him. These signals were then increased 57 to 58 octaves above their real height in order to shift them in the human hearing range.

M87 translated into soothing music

If the black hole in the center of the Galactic cluster of Perseus presents a sound that announces nothing good, NASA has set out to translate, in music, the sound produced by M87. First black hole to have been imagined, the “music” that it gives off is much more pleasant to listen to. We would almost forget that it comes from a cosmic monster.

The data was captured by the large millimeter network of Atacama (Alma) in Chile (in red in the video below). But also by the Chandra X -ray center (CXC) (in purple) and in the NASA Hubble telescope (in blue). It is the center of the black hole that emits the most sound and the most light on the image. The vertical line that unfolds from the center is the jet of materials which are being absorbed by the black hole.

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Black hole M87 in the center of the Galaxy Messier 87 in multiple wavelengths.

Several “Sonifications” of celestial bodies have already been carried out thanks to the data captured by. THE Chandra X-Ray Telescope giving us a mystical and slightly scary overview of the sounds that escape objects populating the universe. One day, perhaps, these are all put together could compose a symphony, that of the cosmos.