Scientists from the American space agency NASA amazed netizens when they revealed what a black hole sounds like from a distant galaxy. The sound segment, which is a little over half a minute long, was published on the NASA Exoplanets account on Twitter – along with clarification about voices and sounds in outer space.
“The misconception that sounds cannot be heard in outer space is due to the fact that most of space is empty (vacuum) and sound waves have no way to pass through it,” the description of the tweet reads. Even so, it is not necessarily true that there is a void between stars – or even galaxies. The account manager explained later in the tweet: “There is so much gas in a cluster of galaxies that we actually managed to pick up sound. Here it is amplified and after being mixed with additional information so that you can hear the black hole.”
The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we’ve picked up actual sound. Here it’s amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e
— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) August 21, 2022
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The sound file was published for the first time last May, after a team of researchers from the Chandra X-ray Observatory obtained the information relevant to its production. The black hole you hear is more than 240 million light-years away from Earth in the “Perseus” galaxy cluster – a collection of thousands of galaxies held together by a common gravitational force.
One of the researchers said that the sound is the result of the pressure waves of the black hole, which pass through the galaxy cluster. “Astronomers have discovered that the pressure waves produced by the black hole cause oscillations in the cluster’s gases – and sounds can be produced from this,” he noted, adding that the human ear is unable to hear the real sound. “The position of the sound is 57 octaves below the middle C on the piano (Middle C)”.
The “Perseus” galaxy cluster is recognized in the science community as one of the most massive objects in the entire universe. It is to the left of the star Algol in the constellation “Perseus” – named after the hero of Greek mythology who killed Medusa and saved Andromeda. The galaxy cluster is invisible to the naked eye.