A unique astronomy music project has transformed NASA spacecraft data into celestial sound baths into a set of new videos.
On Wednesday (March 24), NASA released three videos made in collaboration with its Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) and the scientific outreach program SYSTEM Sounds. The videos mix the light data of the Hubble Space Telescope, observations taken by NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory and other spacecraft, and display them with unique and beautiful sound and footage.
In the videos you can listen to the subtle, sparkling and sweet-sounding interpretation of the Chandra Deep Field South, the waterfall of the Cat’s Eye Nebula and the friction of friction frequencies for Messier 51.
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The video project is led by visualization scientist Kimberly Arcand at CXC, astrophysicist Matt Russo (who is a 2018 TED talks about data sonification) and musician Andrew Santaguida of SYSTEM Sounds.
Data sonication is equal parts artistic pursuit and scientific communication. Light and sound are different, but can be adjusted in audio or video material to provide different types of information.
Light is composed of electromagnetic waves, which does not require a medium to travel: therefore the light of distant stars can reach the earth through the emptiness of space. Sound, on the other hand, is made of mechanical waves, which means that it must move through a material, such as water or gas, in order to exist.
Although sound may not be literally able to reach human ears of these distant celestial objects, the transformation of data into sound can alert the brain to relationships between different wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum by using music intervals to determine the differences or similarities in the represent data. The makers of this project highlight different elements in each of the videos.
The Chandra Deep Field South is the deepest image ever taken X-rays, and the colored dots represent galaxies or supermassive black holes that reside in the centers of galaxies. The full range of X-ray wavelengths found in this field is massive. To portray it to our eyes, scientists use red for low-energy X-rays, green for medium-strength, and blue for high-energy X-rays.
These sounds take on the one-dimensional color field and transform it into a phenomenological experience where sound conveys energetic differences.
“Played as audio … the full range of data can be experienced,” NASA officials wrote the press release describing the videos.
The stereo position of the sounds also helps the viewer to know if a pitch matches a color on the left or right side of the image.
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There’s a “fly-through-the-space” feel that comes from the data sonication video made from the Cat’s Eye Nebula. This is because the sound in this video illustrates what is happening at different distances from the spectacular nebula.
A radar-like scan moves clockwise. The brighter light perceived by Hubble is louder, and the light found farther away from the core of the nebula is at a higher pitch.
“The rising and falling heights that can be heard are due to the radar scan moving over the shells and rays in the nebula,” NASA officials wrote. Chandra’s X-ray data are depicted using what NASA described as a ‘louder’ sound.
The dissonant sounds from the data sonication of the galaxy Messier 51 depict observations of Hubble, Chandra, the former infrared space telescope Spitzer from NASA and the former ultraviolet telescope of the space agency. GALEX. Like the Cat’s Eye Nebula video, the sound here follows an animated radar line dragging clockwise across the face-oriented galaxy.
Messier 51 is popularly known as the Whirlpool Galaxy and, fittingly, the music delivers a sonic bath of tense related pitches corresponding to infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray light. The short and clear sounds correspond to the compact patches of light sometimes seen along the galactic arms.
“At wavelengths in which the spiral arms are prominent, the pitches creep upward as the spiral extends farther from the nucleus. A constant low hum associated with the bright nucleus can be heard, interrupted by short sounds of compact light sources in the galaxy,” “NASA officials wrote in a video description.
Previously, SYSTEM Sounds provided music to the Pillars of creation, the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets and the Helixnevel. More of their videos are available to watch here. The Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, manages the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) for NASA.
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