The sonifications of NASA contributions are incredible to watch and often leave people in shock. Every now and then the space agency amazes people with its sonification contributions. In their recent post, they shared a contribution by turning the “light echoes” from a black hole into sound. “This new sonification turns the ‘light echo’ from a black hole into sound. Black holes are known for not escaping light (such as radio, visible and X-rays). However, the surrounding material can produce intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation. How do they move outwards, these bursts of light may reflect off clouds of gas and dust in space, like when light beams from a car headlight are scattered from fog,” they wrote.
Located about 7,800 light-years from Earth, this system contains a black hole with a mass between five and ten times the mass of the Sun that is pulling material from a companion star in orbit around it. This material is funneled into the disk that surrounds the stellar-mass black hole,” they added. “This sonification converts X-ray data from @NASACHandraXray and Swift into sound. To distinguish between the data from the two telescopes, the Chandra data is represented by higher frequency tones, while the Swift data is lower. In addition to X-rays, the image includes optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey, which shows the stars in the background. Each star in the optical light triggers a musical note. The volume and pitch are determined by the brightness of the star,” the space agency also explained.
NASA also shared a description of the video: “Circular bands of red are surrounded by a starry background. The blue bars highlight the inner and bottom parts of the black hole system. During sonification, the cursor moves outward from the center of the image in a circle. As the light echoes detected in the X-rays (which they see in the image as concentric rings in blue from Chandra and red from Swift) pass through, there are tick-like sounds and changes in volume that indicate X-ray detection and brightness fluctuations.”
Watch the incredible video:
The video was shared 12 hours ago. Since its release, the clip has amassed nearly 3.3 million views, and the numbers are growing fast. The sharing further prompted people to post various comments. “Sounds like NASA dropped a mic on the beach,” wrote an Instagram user. “Sounds like ocean waves rising on the sand, beautiful waves of space,” said another. “Music from our universe,” commented a third.
