Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed two new sonifications of black holes that might be familiar for us. One originated from the Perseus galaxy cluster’s black hole, which has been initially discovered in 2003 by scientists using Chandra’s sound wave detector.
the black hole’s pressure waves generated ripples in the heated gas cluster, which could be converted into a note 57 octaves lower than middle C, according to an observatory news statement. Sound waves can travel easily in a galaxy cluster thanks to all the gas within.
(2/2)
#2 M87 — home of the black hole that gained celebrity status through an image released in 2019 by @ehtelescope (the Event Horizon Telescope). More about the sonifications at: https://t.co/TCN3HGHdYl pic.twitter.com/mvHdmXE9h5— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) May 4, 2022
When comparing the sonification to Chandra’s original audio data, NASA found that it was a first. The sound waves were isolated from the core and then re-synthesized to be within the human hearing range by multiplying them up by 57 and 58 octaves over their real pitch.Both X-ray information and a radar-like scan can be seen in this visual picture, which shows blue and purple showing X-ray data obtained by Chandra.
Unlike the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, which became renowned in 2019, the sonification of the black hole in Galaxy M87, or Messier 87, uses data from those other telescopes that studied M87 at the same time as the EHT. Chandra X-rays, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope optical light, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile’s radio waves make up the three separate wavelengths of light that may be heard.
The visual
It’s easy to see where a black hole is in this picture by looking at the brightest area on the left and the jet structure on the right. From left to right, the picture is scanned by the sonification, which maps each wavelength to a separate set of auditory tones. There are three distinct tones for each kind of data: low-frequency radio waves; medium-frequency optical data; and higher-frequency X-ray data. The image’s brightest area correlates to the sonification’s loudest area.
Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.