How did NASA hear a black hole?

A new sonification turns X-ray “light echoes” from a black hole into sound. Rings of X-rays seen by NASA's Chandra and Swift observatories show the echoes. Material around a black hole can generate bursts of X-rays.

How did NASA get sound of black hole?

The viral audio, to be clear, is not a recording: it has been produced by 'sonifying' data taken from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (another space telescope). The audio produced was originally 57 octaves below middle C, which meant the frequency had to be raised 'quadrillions' of times to be heard by human ears.

Does NASA have audio of a black hole?

The sound waves were actually previously identified by astronomers but have been made audible for the first time. Scientists say the black hole sends out pressure waves that cause ripples in the hot gas, which can be translated into a note.To be clear, though, the actual note is one humans can't hear.

How did NASA record sound in space?

To create audio that is audible to humans, scientists do something known as sonification, which is the translation of this astronomical data into sound. Sound waves around the black hole in the Perseus galaxy are thought to have been produced by 'explosive events'.

How did they know it was a black hole?

Throughout the 1990s, scientists including Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel precisely tracked the movements of stars around the center of our galaxy, proving they were orbiting around something invisible but so massive that it had to be a black hole. (They would receive the Nobel Prize in 2020 for this work.)

Physics expert explains how NASA got sound from a black hole

What did Einstein think was in a black hole?

Over a century ago, Albert Einstein predicted that the gravitational pull of black holes were so strong that they should bend light right around them. Black holes don't emit light, they trap it; and ordinarily, you can't see anything behind a black hole.

Is there a real photo of a black hole?

There is a new addition to astronomers' portrait gallery of black holes. And it's a beauty. Astronomers have finally assembled an image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Known as Sagittarius A*, this black hole appears as a dark silhouette against the glowing material that surrounds it.

Is space completely silent?

In space, no one can hear you scream. This is because there is no air in space – it is a vacuum. Sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum. 'Outer space' begins about 100 km above the Earth, where the shell of air around our planet disappears.

Why is space infinite?

Because space isn't curved they will never meet or drift away from each other. A flat universe could be infinite: imagine a 2D piece of paper that stretches out forever. But it could also be finite: imagine taking a piece of paper, making a cylinder and joining the ends to make a torus (doughnut) shape.

Can astronauts in space hear?

No, you cannot hear any sounds in near-empty regions of space. Sound travels through the vibration of atoms and molecules in a medium (such as air or water). In space, where there is no air, sound has no way to travel.

How loud is a black hole?

Hailey et al. For the first time in history, earthlings can hear what a black hole sounds like: a low-pitched groaning, as if a very creaky heavy door was being opened again and again.

Can anything escape a black hole?

Black holes are dark, dense regions in space where the pull of gravity is so strong that nothing can escape. Not even light can get out of these regions.

What is the loudest sound in space?

The loudest sound in the universe definitely comes from black hole mergers. In this case the “sound” comes out in gravitational waves and not ordinary sound waves.

Would entering a black hole hurt?

The fate of anyone falling into a black hole would be a painful “spaghettification,” an idea popularized by Stephen Hawking in his book “A Brief History of Time.” In spaghettification, the intense gravity of the black hole would pull you apart, separating your bones, muscles, sinews and even molecules.

What happens when a black hole dies?

As black holes evaporate, they get smaller and smaller and their event horizons get uncomfortably close to the central singularities. In the final moments of black holes' lives, the gravity becomes too strong, and the black holes become too small, for us to properly describe them with our current knowledge.

How will the universe end?

Our cosmos is currently 13.77 billion years old, and galaxies throughout the universe will continue making new stars for many years to come. But eventually—roughly one trillion years from now—the last star will be born. That star will likely be a small red dwarf, barely a fraction of our sun's mass.

What's at the end of space?

Practically, we cannot even imagine thinking of the end of space. It is a void where the multiverses lie. Our universe alone is expanding in every direction and covering billions of kilometres within seconds. There is infinite space where such universes roam and there is actually no end.

Is there an unobservable universe?

It will reveal slightly more than twice the volume of the Universe we can observe today. The unobservable Universe, on the other hand, must be at least 23 trillion light years in diameter, and contain a volume of space that's over 15 million times as large as the volume we can observe.

What does space smell like?

A succession of astronauts have described the smell as '… a rather pleasant metallic sensation ... [like] ... sweet-smelling welding fumes', 'burning metal', 'a distinct odour of ozone, an acrid smell', 'walnuts and brake pads', 'gunpowder' and even 'burnt almond cookie'.

Do we age faster in space?

Previous research has shown that spending time in space causes bone density loss, immune dysfunction, cardiovascular issues such as stiffening of arteries, and loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength in both humans and rodent models. These changes resemble aging in people age on Earth, but happen more quickly.

Does the sun make any noise?

Today, we can hear the Sun's movement — all of its waves, loops and eruptions — with our own ears. This sound helps scientists study what can't be observed with the naked eye.

Do wormholes exist?

Einstein's theory of general relativity mathematically predicts the existence of wormholes, but none have been discovered to date. A negative mass wormhole might be spotted by the way its gravity affects light that passes by.

Are wormholes real?

Wormholes are a classic trope of science fiction in popular media, if only because they provide such a handy futuristic plot device to avoid the issue of violating relativity with faster-than-light travel. In reality, they are purely theoretical.

Where do black holes take you?

Maybe black holes go nowhere

By their calculations, quantum mechanics could feasibly turn the event horizon into a giant wall of fire and anything coming into contact would burn in an instant. In that sense, black holes lead nowhere because nothing could ever get inside.