Sound and Space
One basic rule of the universe is that sound cannot travel in space. This is because sound is simply air vibrations that our ears can detect as long as they are vibrating at a frequency between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. In order to transmit the vibrations from one location to another, there have to be molecules that can bump into each other and pass the movement on. Therefore, sound can only travel through a medium. By and large, there is no medium in space because it is a vacuum so sound cannot travel in space. In theory, we should not be able to ‘hear’ a black hole.
Black Holes Making Spooky Sounds
NASA has been studying the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster. They have discovered that the pressure waves emitted by the black hole create ripples in some hot gases located within the cluster. This is a medium and can therefore transmit sound, however, the vibrations could not be picked up by the human ear because it is outside our frequency range. To overcome this, the scientists have used a process called ‘sonification’ which translates the pressure waves into vibrations that we can hear. They are resynthesized upward by 57 and 58 octaves which equates to between 144 quadrillion and 288 quadrillion times higher than the original frequency. It challenges the misconception that no sound originates in space. In fact, ‘sound’ is created in space it is just that there is mostly no medium for it to travel through. The unique thing about a galaxy cluster, however, is that there is a lot of gas and so sound waves can travel. The sound waves in this remarkable clip have been extracted in radial directions which means that it is coming outwards from the center of the black hole. And we can confirm that black holes sound just as spooky as you would expect them to! Next up: Shocking Images from Space Show How Much Lake Mead is Vanishing How Far Away From The Sun, and Other Planets, is Earth? 10 Animals That Have Been to Space This Is How Much You’d Weigh On Pluto
