http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2003/perseus/

I have recently learned about the concept that sound travels through Space. At Harvard’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory they found that the collapse of a Black Hole causes sound waves that travel through interstellar space. Empty space is not a pure vacuum; it has got stuff in it!

There is cosmic dust, high-energy particles and magnetic fields in the so-called vacuum of space; that can be detected as evidence of sound waves across thousands of light years of space by Earth instruments. This is evidence of violent space events, such as the collapse of Black Holes. The frequency of the waves detected translate to a B-flat that registers well below the level of human hearing. It’s more a single constant tone rather than a melodious song; but it is far more than the silence of a vacuum as we had formerly thought.

A sonic anemometer, or a Pitot tube for Lord Vader’s Death Star may be on the technological horizon. If there is a medium, then my thought experiment becomes plausible. For that matter, any device that is dependent on airflow measurements will become mechanically useful.

ll objects that move through a medium, such as air or water, drags a thin layer of the medium along with it as it moves through the medium. From a planet down to a golf ball, hydrostatic pressure causes this anti-aerodynamical layer of medium to stick to the surface of any object in flight. But when the object is far away from any other large object the influence of this thin layer is minimized (such as two objects moving in tandem through space, but at some distance, L, apart).

On a day with no interstellar wind a starcruiser travels through the galaxy at some fraction of the speed of light (it is undoubtedly more than one Mach). There are two devices attached to the outer shell of this one kilometer long spacecraft; at the front-end is a sound emitter and at the backend of the spacecraft is an ultra sensitive microphone. Since the air above the thin hydrostatic pressure layer is disconnected from the spacecraft, then the formulas from my thought experiment can be used as a means of determining the velocity of the spacecraft anywhere in interstellar space.