Mastodawn

TOPIC> Sounds Of The Universe

"Hello everyone! In this topic, the visual stimuli are in the background, even if there will certainly be one or two beautiful pictures to see. Rather, it is about special sounds on our planet and elsewhere in space and acoustic representations of astronomical constellations, so-called sonifications. I really hope to bring a little joy to our visually impaired friends of the Fediverse with this collection and I am very grateful for any inspiration or suggestions for improvement from you!"

2024 March 25

Sonified: The Jellyfish Nebula Supernova Remnant
* Image Credit: X-ray (blue): Chandra (NASA) & ROSAT (ESA); Optical (red): DSS (NSF)
* Radio (green): VLA (NRAO, NSF)
* Sonification: NASA, CXC, SAO, K. Arcand
https://pweb.cfa.harvard.edu/people/kimberly-k-arcand
* SYSTEM Sounds: M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
https://www.astromattrusso.com/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/sonifications/

Explanation:
What does a supernova remnant sound like? Although sound is a compression wave in matter and does not carry into empty space, interpretive sound can help listeners appreciate and understand a visual image of a supernova remnant in a new way. Recently, the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) has been sonified quite creatively. In the featured sound-enhanced video, when an imaginary line passes over a star, the sound of a drop falling into water is played, a sound particularly relevant to the nebula's aquatic namesake. Additionally, when the descending line crosses gas that glows red, a low tone is played, while green sounds a middle tone, and blue produces a tone with a relatively high pitch. Light from the supernova that created the Jellyfish Nebula left approximately 35,000 years ago, when humanity was in the stone age. The nebula will slowly disperse over the next million years, although the explosion also created a dense neutron star which will remain indefinitely.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240325.html

#space #nebula #sonification #sound #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education

grobi Jul 27, 2025

"Well, that sounded like a concert in a cosmic stalactite cave and leads us back to the bottom of our earthly seas. This and the next three posts are about very special sounds from the depths of the oceans!"

2010 April 27

The Bloop: A Mysterious
Sound from the Deep Ocean
* Credit: NOAA, SOSUS
https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/
https://irp.fas.org/program/collect/sosus.htm

Explanation: What created this strange sound in Earth's Pacific Ocean? Pictured above is a visual representation of a loud and unusual sound, dubbed a Bloop, captured by deep sea microphones in 1997. In the above graph, time is shown on the horizontal axis, deep pitch is shown on the vertical axis, and brightness designates loudness. Although Bloops are some of the loudest sounds of any type ever recorded in Earth's oceans, their origin remains unknown. The Bloop sound was placed as occurring several times off the southern coast of South America and was audible 5,000 kilometers away. Although the sound has similarities to those vocalized by living organisms, not even a blue whale is large enough to croon this loud. The sounds point to the intriguing hypothesis that even larger life forms lurk in the unexplored darkness of Earth's deep oceans. A less imagination-inspiring possibility, however, is that the sounds resulted from some sort of iceberg calving. No further Bloops have been heard since 1997, although other loud and unexplained sounds have been recorded.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100427.html

Original icequake (bloop) sound:
The broad spectrum sounds recorded in the summer of 1997 are consistent with icequakes generated by large icebergs as they crack and fracture. NOAA hydrophones deployed in the Scotia Sea detected numerous icequakes with spectrograms very similar to “Bloop”. Recorded signal sped up 16 times.

[...]

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program

#space #earth #sonification #sound #graph #science #marinegeology #nature #climate #education

grobi Jul 27, 2025

[...]

Iceberg Grounding on Seafloor (Slow Down)

The sound slowly descends in frequency over about 7 minutes as the drifting iceberg slows to a stop once it comes in contact with the seafloor. Recorded signal sped up 16 times.

[...]

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program

#space #earth #iceberg #sonification #sound #acoustic #graph #science #marinegeology #nature #climate #education

grobi Jul 27, 2025

[...]

Iceberg Harmonic Tremor

Generated by iceberg in contact with the seafloor or other iceberg. This spectrogram has a fundamental frequency of 40 Hz, with a 40 Hz overtone spacing. Multiple overtones are visible in the spectrogram. Audio sped up 3X normal.

[...]

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program

#space #earth #sonification #sound #graph #science #marinegeology #nature #climate #education

grobi Jul 27, 2025

[...]

Calving

Spectrogram of an iceberg calving (large section of iceberg breaking off) while adrift. The calving signal is short duration, broad band from 1-440 Hz generated by ice cracking and crack propagation. Audio sped up 3X normal.

https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/specs_cryogenic.html

CREDIT
DOC / NOAA/ OAR / PMEL / Acoustics Program

#space #earth #iceberg #sonification #sound #acoustic #graph #science #marinegeology #nature #climate #education

grobi Jul 27, 2025

2002 October 3

V838 Mon: Mystery Star

A leading candidate for the most mysterious star found in recent times is variable star V838 Monocerotis. At a distance of about 8,000 light-years, V838 Mon was discovered to be in outburst in January of this year. Initially thought to be a familiar type of classical nova, astronomers quickly realized that instead, V838 Mon may be a totally new addition to the astronomical zoo. Observations indicate that the erupting star transformed itself over a period of months from a small under-luminous star a little hotter than the Sun, to a highly-luminous, cool supergiant star undergoing rapid and complex brightness changes. The transformation defies the conventional understanding of stellar life cycles. A most notable feature of V838 Mon is the "expanding" nebula which now appears to surround it. Seen above in two separate images from the South African Astronomical Observatory's 1 meter telescope, the nebula is probably a light echo from shells of formerly unseen material lost by the star during its previous evolution. Light-years in diameter, the shells progressively reflect the light from V838 Mon's outbursts, providing an opportunity to look back at the history of this remarkable star's behaviour.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap021003.html

___

This data sonification of the star V838 Monocerotis, or V838 Mon, shows two Hubble images taken almost seven months apart. A pulse of light from the central star illuminates clouds of dust and gas surrounding V838 Mon.

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/sonifications/

CREDIT
NASA, ESA, H.E. Bond (STScI) and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
* Sonification: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

#space #star #sonification #sound #acoustic #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Jul 27, 2025

2020 December 16

Sonified: The Matter of the Bullet Cluster
* Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO
* Optical: NASA/STScI, Magellan/U.Arizona
* Lensing Map: NASA/STScI, ESO WFI, Magellan/U.Arizona
* Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

Explanation:
What's the matter with the Bullet Cluster? This massive cluster of galaxies (1E 0657-558) creates gravitational lens distortions of background galaxies in a way that has been interpreted as strong evidence for the leading theory: that dark matter exists within. Different analyses, though, indicate that a less popular alternative -- modifying gravity-- could explain cluster dynamics without dark matter, and provide a more likely progenitor scenario as well. Currently, the two scientific hypotheses are competing to explain the observations: it's invisible matter versus amended gravity. The duel is dramatic as a clear Bullet-proof example of dark matter would shatter the simplicity of modified gravity theories. The featured sonified image is a Hubble/Chandra/Magellan composite with red depicting the X-rays emitted by hot gas, and blue depicting the suggested separated dark matter distribution. The sonification assigns low tones to dark matter, mid-range frequencies to visible light, and high tones to X-rays. The battle over the matter in the Bullet cluster is likely to continue as more observations, computer simulations, and analyses are completed.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201216.html

#space #cluster #sonification #sound #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Jul 27, 2025

RS Puppis
Pulsating RS Puppis, the brightest star in the image center, is some ten times more massive than our Sun and on average 15,000 times more luminous. In fact, RS Pup is a Cepheid variable star, a class of stars whose brightness is used to estimate distances to nearby galaxies as one of the first steps in establishing the cosmic distance scale. As RS Pup pulsates over a period of about 40 days, its regular changes in brightness are also seen along its surrounding nebula delayed in time, effectively a light echo. Using measurements of the time delay and angular size of the nebula, the known speed of light allows astronomers to geometrically determine the distance to RS Pup to be 6,500 light-years, with a remarkably small error of plus or minus 90 light-years. An impressive achievement for stellar astronomy, the echo-measured distance also more accurately establishes the true brightness of RS Pup, and by extension other Cepheid stars, improving the knowledge of distances to galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
____

RS Puppis is a glittering star 200 times larger than our Sun and wreathed with dust reflecting starlight. Located about 6,500 light-years away, this star rhythmically brightens and dims over a six-week cycle. In this sonification, scientists represent data in the image as sound for a new, festive way of experiencing RS Puppis. Pitch is assigned based on direction from the center; as the circle travels inward, points at the top of the circle are mapped to higher notes and points near the bottom are mapped to lower notes.
[...]
More information in Alt-Text

CREDIT
NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain); Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble); Sonification: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

#space #star #sonification #sound #acoustic #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Jul 27, 2025

2020 September 30

Sonified: Eagle Nebula Pillars
* Image Credit: NASA, ESA, & The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
* Sonification: NASA, CXC, SAO, K. Arcand, M. Russo & A. Santaguida

Explanation:
Yes, but have you ever experienced the Eagle Nebula with your ears ? The famous nebula, M16, is best known for the feast it gives your eyes, highlighting bright young stars forming deep inside dark towering structures. These light-years long columns of cold gas and dust are some 6,500 light-years distant toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). Sculpted and eroded by the energetic ultraviolet light and powerful winds from M16's cluster of massive stars, the cosmic pillars themselves are destined for destruction. But the turbulent environment of star formation within M16, whose spectacular details are captured in this combined Hubble (visible) and Chandra (X-ray) image, is likely similar to the environment that formed our own Sun. In the featured video, listen for stars and dust sounding off as the line of sonification moves left to right, with vertical position determining pitch.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200930.html

___

These pillars of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula are regions of starbirth. The aptly named "Pillars of Creation" hide newborn stars in their wispy columns. Stretching roughly 4 to 5 light-years, the towers are a relatively small feature of the entire Eagle Nebula, which spans 70 by 55 light-years.

In the sonification, sounds are generated by moving horizontally across the image from left to right as seen in both visible and X-ray light. The vertical position of the recorded light controls the pitch. Particular attention is paid to the structure of the pillars, which can be heard as sweeps from low to high pitches and back.

#space #nebula #sonification #sound #acoustic #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Jul 29, 2025

Mice Galaxies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NGC 4676, or the Mice Galaxies, are two spiral galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices. About 290 million light-years distant, they have begun the process of colliding and merging. Their "mice" name refers to the long tails produced by tidal action—the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy—known here as a galactic tide. It is a possibility that both galaxies, which are members of the Coma Cluster, have experienced collision, and will continue colliding until they coalesce.

The colors of the galaxies are peculiar. In NGC 4676A a core with some dark markings is surrounded by a bluish white remnant of spiral arms. The tail is unusual, starting out blue and terminating in a more yellowish color, despite the fact that the beginning of each arm in virtually every spiral galaxy starts yellow and terminates in a bluish color. NGC 4676B has a yellowish core and two arcs; arm remnants underneath are bluish as well.

The galaxies were photographed in 2002 by the Hubble Space Telescope. In the background of the Mice Galaxies, there are over 3000 galaxies, at distances up to 13 billion light-years.

By contributors to Wikimedia projects

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The Mice Galaxies are a colliding pair of galaxies, that will eventually merge into a single galaxy. They’re located about 300 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. In this data sonification, scientists represented brightness with volume and pitch – brighter light is louder and lower pitched. The vertical position of objects in the image is used to control the pitch of sustained musical strings, and cymbals swell following the brightness of the galaxy cores. Listen for a cymbal crash played for the foreground star with diffraction spikes, too!

CREDIT
Please see the ALT-Text

#space #galaxy #sonification #sound #acoustic #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Jul 29, 2025

Earth's Song
by Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia

Suspended in the dark cosmos, Earth sings to itself in a high-pitched chorus of chirps and beeps. This song is a product of very low frequency radio waves generated by lightning strikes or excited electrons zipping through the Van Allen Belts, two vast swaths of radiation surrounding Earth. While ham radio operators have long detected this eerie planetary sound using inexpensive receivers, the recent recording by specially designed antennas on NASA's twin Van Allen Probes is one of the clearest examples ever captured. But could Earth's chorus be a siren song? The probes are now on a quest to find out whether these radio waves might be powering up otherwise harmless electrons in the Van Allen Belts, turning them into "killer electrons" capable of damaging satellites and astronauts. Watch the videos to hear and learn more about this rare recording.

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11073

Credits:
+ Science@NASA
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
+ Van Allen Belts image courtesy of NASA
+ T. Benesch and J. Carns

#space #earth #hamradio #audio #sound #acoustic #tech #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Jul 29, 2025

Let's listen to

Earth's Song
Chorus Waves of Earth recorded

Credits:
+ Science@NASA
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
+ Van Allen Belts image courtesy of NASA
+ T. Benesch and J. Carns

#space #earth #hamradio #audio #sound #acoustic #tech #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Jul 29, 2025

Earthquakes

Seismograms of earthquakes have a particular, recognizable structure. The high-frequency first arrivals (primary, or P waves) are followed by lower-frequency secondary (S) waves, and then by the energetic, low-frequency surface waves, as in these examples. The lowest-frequency surface waves usually arrive earlier than the higher-frequency ones, which produces an upward glide (glissando) from low to high pitch.

The concluding part of the seismogram is the Coda, composed of numerous scattered waves arriving from different directions.
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The catastrophic Tohoku earthquake occurred at 14:46 Japan standard time (05:46 UTC) on 11 March, 2011. The largest #earthquake ever recorded in Japan (magnitude Mw = 9.1), it occurred undersea, 70 km to the east of the Tohoku region, and lasted around 6 minutes. The earthquake triggered a tsunami that reached heights of up to 40 metres and travelled up to 10 km inland. Nearly 20 thousand casualties have been reported. The tsunami caused the #Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, with the discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima and hundreds of thousands of residents evacuated.

This #seismogram is a recording of the Tohoku earthquake made thousands of kilometres away, at the Ireland Array seismic station IA003, Birr Castle Demesne, Co Offaly, Ireland. The seismogram shows the vertical component of the ground motion (up and down movements of the ground). The recording is accelerated by a factor of 4320, which increases the frequency of the signal by the same factor and brings it into the audible frequency range. The recording is then “stretched” by a factor of 40, so that the different waves can be distinguished in time and heard clearly.

Following the energetic arrivals of P, S, and surface wave, the long coda of the seismogram shows its own, original musical style, with moving, somber notes and harmonies.

Credit for Video and Article
David Stalling
https://www.soundsoftheearth.ie

#earth #tech #science #nature #education

grobi Aug 16, 2025

NGC 1300

The majestic barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300’s arms hold blue clusters of young stars, pink clouds of star formation, and dark lanes of dust. NGC 1300 is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not spiral all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its center. In this image, blue and red supergiant stars, star clusters, and star-forming regions are well resolved by Hubble across the spiral arms, and dust lanes trace out fine structures in the disk and bar. Numerous more distant galaxies are visible in the background, and are seen even through the densest regions of NGC 1300.

To represent this image with sound, scientists assigned louder volume to brighter light. Light farther from the center is pitched higher as a counterclockwise radar scans across the galaxy. NGC 1300 resides nearly 70 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.

CREDITS:
+ NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
+ Acknowledgment: P. Knezek (WIYN)
+ Sonification: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

https://youtu.be/zyf1UDm-GyU

#space #galaxy #sonification #sound #acoustic #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Aug 17, 2025

Sagittarius A* EHT Radio Sonification

This is a sonification — translation into sound — of the latest image from the Event Horizon Telescope of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Using a radar-like scan, the sonification begins at the 12 o'clock position and sweeps clockwise. Changes in volume represent the differences in brightness the EHT observed around the event horizon of Sgr A*. The material that is closer to the black hole and hence moving faster corresponds to higher frequencies of sound. This sonification was processed in a special way to allow a listener to hear the data in 3D stereo sound, in which the sounds seem to start directly ahead and then move clockwise to one ear then the other as the sweep is made.

About the Sound:

+ This is a radar-like scan, starting from 12 o'clock and moving clockwise.
+ The brightness controls the volume and the radial position controls the frequencies that are present.
+ The emission from material closer to the black hole (which orbits faster) is mapped to higher frequencies.
+ The sound is rendered in binaural audio. When listened to with headphones, the sound will appear to start directly in front of you and then move clockwise all the way around your head.
+ Listen for the three bright regions at about 1, 5, and 9 o'clock, as well as the very low tones indicating fainter light from outside the main ring.

For thread i looped the sonification three times.

+ Sonification Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida);
+ Image Credit: Radio: EHT Collaboration; X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO); Infrared (NASA/HST/STScI)

More about the Center of our Galaxy in TOPIC> "Bull's Eye" into the Center of our Galaxy
https://defcon.social/@grobi/114498597554595255

https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2022/sgra/animations.html

#space #galaxy #sonification #sound #acoustic #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

grobi Sep 6, 2025

The 2012 Indian Ocean earthquakes

A magnitude 8.6 (Mw) undersea earthquake struck south of the Indonesian province Aceh on 11 April, 2012, at 15:38 local time, followed by a magnitude 8.2 aftershock 2 hours later. These large earthquakes were produced by horizontal slip on the undersea faults. Thanks to the lack of vertical movement of the seafloor, no tsunamis were generated.

The rich sound in this stereo track comes from a combination of 3-component seismograms recorded by all the stations of Ireland Array, recording across Ireland. The stronger main event is followed by a similarly structured sequence of waves of the main aftershock. The recording is accelerated by a factor of 9600, which increases the frequency of the signal by the same factor and brings it into the audible frequency range. The recording is then “stretched” by a factor of 80, so that the different waves can be distinguished in time and heard clearly.

Credit for Video and Article
David Stalling
https://www.soundsoftheearth.ie

https://www.soundsoftheearth.ie/indian-ocean/

#earth #tech #science #nature #education

grobi Sep 6, 2025

The Earth Always Hums: Infragravity waves and current-generated noise and the microseisms (acceleration x6000)

Left: The spectrogram of the infragravity waves and current-generated noise (the time-variable broad bright spots on the left) and the ocean microseisms (the continuous band at higher frequencies, on the right of the spectrogram). The spectrogram shows the signal strength—or how loud it is—over time and at different frequencies. Labels and scales appear periodically. One of the horizontal scales at bottom left shows the original period of the signal in seconds. This signal is inaudible to the human ear. The recording has been accelerated by a factor of 6000, bringing all the signals into the audible range. The frequency scale (bottom left) marks the frequency (Hz) of the transformed signal that we hear. Right: the 3D visualization of the sound.

This stereo track is a rendering of the 3 components of the motion of the seafloor at a 3.9 km depth, southwest of Ireland. The seismograms were recorded on 1-19 April, 2020, by the ocean-bottom seismic station Brian of the SEA-SEIS network.

https://www.soundsoftheearth.ie/the-earth-always-hums-2/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-50Ao7qpfTjFNb0oQFYyHQ

Credit for Video and Article
David Stalling

#earth #tech #science #nature #education

grobi Sep 6, 2025

Saturn's B Ring, for Harp and Drums (Excerpt)

SYSTEM Sounds converted the highest resolution color image of Saturn's rings into music. The brightness of each pixel is used to control the harp notes and drum sounds as well as their intensity. The notes correspond to the first 13 notes of the harmonic series. The image was taken on July 6, 2017 and shows a section within Saturn's dense B ring in natural color.

CREDIT:
SYSTEM Sounds

Full Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUZXl4tpabs

FYI:
https://youtu.be/DUdLRy8i9qI

#space #earth #tech #science #nature #education

Sonification of WR 124

The first movement is a prelude to the potential birth of a black hole. WR124 is an extremely bright, short-lived massive star known as a Wolf-Rayet at a distance of about 28,000 light-years from Earth. These stars fling their outer layers out into space, creating spectacular arrangements seen in an image in infrared light from the Webb telescope. In the sonification of WR124, this nebula is heard as flutes and the background stars as bells. At the center of WR124, where the scan begins before moving outward, is a hot core of the star that may explode as a supernova and potentially collapse and leave behind a black hole in its wake. As the scan moves from the center outward, X-ray sources detected by Chandra are translated into harp sounds. Data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is heard as metallic bell-like sounds, while the light of the central star is mapped to produce the descending scream-like sound at the beginning. The piece is rounded out by strings playing additional data from the infrared telescopic trio of ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Herschel Space Telescope, NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, and NASA’s retired Wide Image Survey Explorer (WISE) as chords.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: (Herschel) ESA/NASA/Caltech, (Spitzer) NASA/JPL/Caltech, (WISE) NASA/JPL/Caltech; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb ERO Production Team; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

#space #galaxy #sonification #sound #acoustic #astrophotography #photography #science #astronomy #nature #education #NASA

@iveyline Dec 5

@grobi Stunning