The "Sounds" Of Space

[Liquid360]

I'm just curious... any object moving through any medium creates a "sound", notice sound is in quotations. What is the sound equivalent of an object moving through space-time? Obviously I don't mean sound as in auditory sound but are there not gravitational ripples, no matter how slight, created by an object as it moves through space-time? Just wonderin'.

- Nate

Birmingham, AL

[LukeSkywatcher]

Interesting question. I dont know the answer other then to say that i believe the white noise (static) you get on tv's and radio is the sound of the universe. Objects moving through space,you would think would create some kind of "sound" or even a "wave" of some sort. Is it possible to detect?.............no idea. Would be interesting.

I know meteors create a sound when they enter the atmosphere,but its only audible with radio astronomy. 

[laowho]

Here's what little I know...

You know the little koan, if a tree falls in the forest...To draw some arbitrary line, I assume that "sound" is distinguishable from mere "sound waves" as the effect produced when sound waves fall on a receptor. That said...

I remember from an astronomy lecture that space does produce/contain sound waves...in fact, there was a hypothesis 15(?) Years ago that attributed galactic evolution (spiraled and barred spiraled arms) to sound waves and as a way by which dark matter could be obsolesced. Nothing ever came of it though.

I also remember from a lecture that black holes have a resonant frequency of middle C (natural C, neither major nor minor), but at somewhere around 25 octaves below this.

I've also heard tell that the "Aummmm" of the Buddhist chant is akin to/resonant with the vibrational frequency of our sun, the inference being that certain accomplished yogis were able to achieve sufficient meditative states to "hear" this.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Anything in space that is big enough to distort/cause any visible/audible ripple in space or time must be detectable already.

Black holes are visible to us already i think because from our perspective............light and matter simply vanished at the core (event horizon).

[johnny 2 chins]

A little while ago I watched a short video on general astronomy and one of the people they interviewed was involved in recording what each body in the solar system "sounds" like.

I'm sorry but my attention drifted at this point so my memory it is vague. It involved, as I remember, looking at the surface movements of the relevant body and translating this into the sort of noise it would make it there was no vacuum surrounding it.

If I can find this video again I'll post the link.

Sorry to be so vague

john

[laowho]

Anything in space that is big enough to distort/cause any visible/audible ripple in space or time must be detectable already.

Black holes are visible to us already i think because from our perspective............light and matter simply vanished at the core (event horizon).

Black holes were detected through gravitational lensing, hence Einstein's Cross, if I remember rightly. Til then his theory only predicted them.

[Davey-T]

Something on a S@N cover disc a while back, supposed to be the sound of stars I think.

Dave

[jabeoo1]

From the books I have at home.

There is a small chapter from 'The Life and Death of Stars' by Kenneth R Lang.   That specifically describes the Sun's sound paths.  It describes the Sun having a secret melody trapped inside and its spherical shells called resonant cavities that play a big role.  These appear to bend & internally refract the internal sound waves of the star, some stay within fixed zones and appear oscillate over a 5 minute period, they strike the photosphere and rebound back down bouncing back off the next deepest shell surface causing localized motion outwards and then inwards and back again.  Whilst other appear at the same time at different frequencies and are able to dig in deep and cross the zones, accelerating with depth before bending back up for total internal refraction.  The diagram in the book shows no crossing of the suns center rather skimming off a surface of certain density and heat, shown as a core / ball in the middle.   

From what I can understand from the description the waves are a mixture of small confused waves (Does this mean Noise/Random)?, these forms of sound in nature are like rushing waters, wind or steam hissing that we are all familiar with.  I assume this would make sense as a hot agitated gas would probably have the sound qualities of noise.? and regular oscillations whose frequency are very low & outside hearing range ?.  Our hearing drops off around 15 cycles / second so I am not sure if 1 cycle every 5 minutes would be a sound at all...Anyone help? 

These 5 minute cycles have been used by SOHO for over a decade to isolate sound waves of fixed depths to use helioseismology to map the internal structure of the sun.  Like how the mapping of an earth quake explains the internal structure of the earth. 

Other stars have also been described in a 'musical' context too.  The famous North star Polaris appears to have a period of dimming and brightening of 0.03 magnitude over 3.97 days.  This is apparently too short for its luminosity and the cycle is shortening.  There is suspicion it is vibrating at its first overtone and is in the transition of returning to its musical fundamental !

There is a really good description of this in the book by James. B Kalar 'The Hundred Greatest Stars.'

With all that said the 'sounds of space' based on what I have read in these two examples so far seem to trend towards a noise / random sound palate, and maybe a very low pitch drone of a very very low frequency oscillator (which we may not be able to detect),  It makes me think though about what something like a pulsar with a period between 20-20,000 hz   (the humans audible frequency period) may sound like,  Something makes me think of a very pristine sine wave making its way down the audible frequency range before dropping off outside.

Great topic for a thread by the way !

[laowho]

If noise can be included here, not too long ago there was a German gravitational wave detector that claimed to have picked up the 6% or so of the same (6% predicted) noise that should be there if the universe was holographic. Dunno whether anything ever came of that, or whether Leonard Susskind seized upon it--he'd used a holographic model to prevail upon Hawking and show that information cannot be irrevocably lost in a black hole, thus preserving the principle that information (like energy) can never be lost.

[m37]

What is the sound equivalent of an object moving through space-time? 

It's a band called Neurosis! Sounds like 2 planets colliding, especially if you see them live.

[jabeoo1]

In the book 'Universe' by Nicholas Cheetham (page 195).  

NGC 1275 (the black hole Perseus A) situated 235 million light years away.  The ripples in the gas thats being pulled into the black hole reveals the presence of sound waves.  It claims that its producing 'sound' in the key of B-flat but .....and wait for it.  57 octaves below middle C !  Or to put it another way 1 million billion times deeper than the human ear can detect. 

Nice !

[LukeSkywatcher]

Just thinking about this last night while watching a movie. Isnt the sound of space the "white Noise" we hear (used to hear) on our tv's when programs ended and the fuzzy white/grey static stuff came on screen. 

[Liquid360]

I believe that white noise is remnants of the Big Bang, not "sound" from astronomical motion... Luckily this months Scientific American actually addresses the issue of hearing the ripples of gravitational waves which is as close to answer as I've seen.

- Nate

Birmingham, AL

[RobertC]

Always love to listen to the sounds that are from outside of our own planet and especially the noise from the plasma given off by the re-entering crafts.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I believe that white noise is remnants of the Big Bang, not "sound" from astronomical motion... Luckily this months Scientific American actually addresses the issue of hearing the ripples of gravitational waves which is as close to answer as I've seen.

- Nate

Birmingham, AL

You are right there. Sorry, i kind of lost the train of thought on the topic. I was thinking however, If space is a vacuum (i'm told it is), this means there is no air to carry sound waves. No air, no friction, no sound.

Gravitational waves however, are not the same as sound waves so i see no reason why they wouldnt be detected. They would be more like the ripples on a pond if you threw a stone in????. More of a visual wave (not a light wave per say), but more visual then audible.

My head hurts now. 

[Liquid360]

As I understand it, and I hardly do, the best way to detect gravitational waves are through laser interferometry which at its most basic requires lasers mounted in space... each device with two lasers which act as an ear drum and measures strong waves by constantly measuring the distance between the lasers with accuracy a half atom wide... waiting for a neutron star, dwarf, or black hole to send ripples out through space time. This amounts to as close to a "sound of space" as I've seen. I wasn't implying "sound" as earth based sound, but the cosmic space-time equivalent which I believe is g. waves.

- Nate

Birmingham, AL

[Swedeman2013]

Voyager 1 picked up actual sound from our sun (plasma rays) while travelling into intergalactic space for the first time in history. This stuff is incredibly interesting to me!

[Herbig]

I must confess I don't know much about this subject but at the NLO we have a SPAM (Solar, Planetary and Meteor detection) group, they have radio equipment that can 'listen' to the sun and planets etc.