The Universe is a fascinating place, abundant of huge numbers of planets to search, untold stories, and even ‘superbubbles’ blown by black holes.
But there’s one thing that space actually isn’t loud. Without Earth’s air particles to support you hear, out there in space you’d be hearing to a whole lot of quietness.
Fortunately, that didn’t obstruct NASA from figuring out a way to generate sound in the soundlessness of space back in 2019 – by ‘sonifying’ the above photograph captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Yes, move over music, podcasts, or audio-books – the different thing to hear to is Hubble images. The picture NASA used for this project was conducted by the Hubble’s Excellent Camera for Studies and Wide-Field Camera 3 back in August 2018.
The man serving with Hubble calls the picture a ‘galactic treasure chest’ because of the number of galaxies splattered across it.
“Each visible speck of a galaxy is home to countless stars,” NASA told about the image.
“A few stars closer to home shine brightly in the foreground. While a massive galaxy cluster nestles at the very center of the image; an immense collection of maybe thousands of galaxies, all held together by the relentless force of gravity.”
Just as wonderful as this picture already is, it just entered a new level. Once the picture converted into a stunningly eerie musical composition.
The team that built the sonified picture reveals that the various places and components of the image produce distinct sounds.
Stars and compress galaxies are describe by short and definite notes, while the spiraling galaxies transmit more complicated, higher sounds.
The universe grows “sonified” in this visualization of a group of galaxies pictured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Time runs left to right, and the wavelength of sound changes from base to top. The wavelength ranging from 30 to 1,000 hertz. Something near the bottom of the picture produces lower notes, while those close the top produce higher ones. Most of the visible specks are galaxies covering innumerable stars. Several unique stars shine radiantly in the foreground. Stars and compressed galaxies produce short, clear tones, while relaxing spiral galaxies emit longer notes that change pitch.