Keyser_Soze Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Quote Since 2003, the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster has been associated with sound. This is because astronomers discovered that pressure waves sent out by the black hole caused ripples in the cluster's hot gas that could be translated into a note — one that humans cannot hear some 57 octaves below middle C. Now a new sonification brings more notes to this black hole sound machine. 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. The popular misconception that there is no sound in space originates with the fact that most of space is essentially a vacuum, providing no medium for sound waves to propagate through. A galaxy cluster, on the other hand, has copious amounts of gas that envelop the hundreds or even thousands of galaxies within it, providing a medium for the sound waves to travel. In this sonification of Perseus, the sound waves astronomers previously identified were extracted and made audible for the first time. The sound waves were extracted in radial directions, that is, outwards from the center. The signals were then resynthesized into the range of human hearing by scaling them upward by 57 and 58 octaves above their true pitch. Another way to put this is that they are being heard 144 quadrillion and 288 quadrillion times higher than their original frequency. (A quadrillion is 1,000,000,000,000,000.) The radar-like scan around the image allows you to hear waves emitted in different directions. In the visual image of these data, blue and purple both show X-ray data captured by Chandra. https://chandra.si.edu/sound/index.html#perseus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitizenVectron Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Except the sound had no medium to get from the galaxy cluster to here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacon Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uaarkson Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 25 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said: Except the sound had no medium to get from the galaxy cluster to here... I mean, we’re just seeing the associated light and translating it into “sound” but there are actual pressure waves being generated in the gas that can be thought of as analogous to “sound” through our gaseous atmosphere. There are also multiple analogies to sound in quantum fields and wave functions. Sound is really just the frequency of a waveform regardless of medium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricofoley Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_m_b_m_b_m Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 I should call her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marioandsonic Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 30 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said: Oh good, I found the soundtrack to my nightmares Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPCyric Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 6 hours ago, Ricofoley said: Absolute classic I wish we would have got the sequel they hinted at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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