sound cannot travel in space

Why isn’t there any sound in space? An astronomer explains why in space no one can hear you scream

University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

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How far can sound travel through space, since it’s so empty? Is there an echo in space? – Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington

In space, no one can hear you scream.

You may have heard this saying. It’s the tagline from the famous 1979 science fiction movie “ Alien .” It’s a scary thought, but is it true? The simple answer is yes, no one can hear you scream in space because there is no sound or echo in space.

I’m a professor of astronomy , which means I study space and how it works. Space is silent – for the most part.

How sound works

To understand why there’s no sound in space, first consider how sound works. Sound is a wave of energy that moves through a solid, a liquid or a gas.

Sound is a compression wave . The energy created when your vocal cords vibrate slightly compresses the air in your throat, and the compressed energy travels outward.

A good analogy for sound is a Slinky toy . If you stretch out a Slinky and push hard on one end, a compression wave travels down the Slinky.

When you talk, your vocal cords vibrate. They jostle air molecules in your throat above your vocal cords, which in turn jostle or bump into their neighbors, causing a sound to come out of your mouth.

Sound moves through air the same way it moves through your throat. Air molecules near your mouth bump into their neighbors, which in turn bump into their neighbors, and the sound moves through the air. The sound wave travels quickly , about 760 miles per hour (1,223 kilometers per hour), which is faster than a commercial jet.

Space is a vacuum

So what about in space?

Space is a vacuum, which means it contains almost no matter. The word vacuum comes from the Latin word for empty .

Sound is carried by atoms and molecules. In space, with no atoms or molecules to carry a sound wave, there’s no sound. There’s nothing to get in sound’s way out in space, but there’s nothing to carry it, so it doesn’t travel at all. No sound also means no echo. An echo happens when a sound wave hits a hard, flat surface and bounces back in the direction it came from.

By the way, if you were caught in space outside your spacecraft with no spacesuit, the fact that no one could hear your cry for help is the least of your problems. Any air you still had in your lungs would expand because it was at higher pressure than the vacuum outside. Your lungs would rupture. In a mere 10 to 15 seconds , you’d be unconscious due to a lack of oxygen.

Sound in the solar system

Scientists have wondered how human voices would sound on our nearest neighboring planets, Venus and Mars. This experiment is hypothetical because Mars is usually below freezing , and its atmosphere is thin, unbreathable carbon dioxide . Venus is even worse – its air is hot enough to melt lead, with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere.

On Mars, your voice would sound tinny and hollow, like the sound of a piccolo . On Venus , the pitch of your voice would be much deeper, like the sound of a booming bass guitar. The reason is the thickness of the atmosphere. On Mars the thin air creates a high-pitched sound, and on Venus the thick air creates a low-pitched sound. The team that worked this out simulated other solar system sounds , like a waterfall on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Deep space sounds

While space is a good enough vacuum that normal sound can’t travel through it, it’s actually not a perfect vacuum, and it does have some particles floating through it.

Beyond the Earth and its atmosphere, there are five particles in a typical cubic centimeter – the volume of a sugar cube – that are mostly hydrogen atoms. By contrast, the air you are breathing is 10 billion billion (10 19) times more dense. The density goes down with distance from the Sun, and in the space between stars there are 0.1 particles per cubic centimeter. In vast voids between galaxies , it is a million times lower still – fantastically empty.

The voids of space are kept very hot by radiation from stars. The very spread-out matter found there is in a physical state called a plasma .

A plasma is a gas in which electrons are separated from protons. In a plasma, the physics of sound waves get complicated . Waves travel much faster in this low-density medium, and their wavelength is much longer.

In 2022, NASA released a spectacular example of sound in space . It used X-ray data to make an audible recording that represents the way a massive black hole stirs up plasma in the Perseus galaxy cluster, 250 million light years from Earth. The black hole itself emits no sound, but the diffuse plasma around it carries very long wavelength sound waves.

The natural sound is far too low a frequency for the human ear to hear, 57 octaves below middle C, which is the middle note on a piano and in the middle of the range of sound people can hear. But after raising the frequency to the audible range, the result is chilling – it’s the sound of a black hole growling in deep space.

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Is There Sound in Space?

No, there is no sound in space. At least, not in the way we traditionally understand sound on Earth. The misconception exists largely due to popular culture. Movies and TV shows often depict space battles with roaring rockets and booming exploding stars, but in reality, space is eerily silent.

The reason for this silence lies in the nature of sound itself. Sound is a vibration that travels through a medium, like air or water. For sound waves to propagate, they need particles. Space is a near- perfect vacuum , meaning it has very few particles. Without a medium for these sound waves, there is no sound.

NASA’s “Space Sounds”: Understanding Sonification

Despite the silence of space, there are videos and recordings labeled as “sounds from space” released by NASA. These are not sounds in the traditional sense. Instead, they are products of a process called sonification.

Sonification is the conversion of data into sound. In the context of space, instruments on spacecraft record electromagnetic vibrations or particle interactions. These signals, which are not audible, get converted into sound waves that we can hear. When scientists represent data in an auditory format, it makes certain patterns and anomalies easier to detect.

For instance, the eerie “whistles” and “howls” from recordings of Jupiter or Saturn aren’t sounds that an astronaut could hear. Instead, they are sonifications of radio waves or other electromagnetic phenomena detected by spacecraft.

Gravitational Waves: A Type of Sound in Space

The groundbreaking discovery of gravitational waves adds a new layer to our understanding of “sounds” in space. Detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), these are ripples in spacetime caused by cataclysmic events, like the merging of two black holes.

Now, gravitational waves aren’t sounds in the traditional sense. They don’t propagate through air or water; they literally stretch and compress the fabric of the universe. However, much like the sonifications mentioned earlier, scientists often convert gravitational wave data into sound.

When scientists at LIGO do this, the results are astounding. The final moments of two black holes spiraling into one another can be “heard” as a chirp. In this context, these gravitational waves are akin to the universe’s symphony, a testament to the colossal events unfolding in the cosmos.

Sound in Space: Can You Hear Sound on the Moon?

Similar to the vastness of space, the Moon is also an environment where sound doesn’t propagate in the traditional manner. The Moon has an extremely thin atmosphere or exosphere, which consists of very few particles. Because of this near- vacuum condition, there’s no medium for sound waves to travel through on the Moon’s surface. So, if an astronaut shouts on the Moon without any equipment, the sound doesn’t travel. Another astronaut standing a distance can’t hear it.

How Astronauts Talk on the Moon

Given the lack of an effective medium for sound transmission on the Moon, you might wonder how astronauts communicate with each other. Astronauts wear helmets that are part of a sealed system, connected to their spacesuits. Inside these helmets, there’s an atmosphere – usually a mix of oxygen and other gases – which transmits sound. When an astronaut speaks, the sound waves travel through the air inside the helmet, reaching a microphone. This microphone then converts the sound into an electrical signal, which transmits the signal to the communication systems of other astronauts or to mission control on Earth.

Any vibrations caused by an astronaut’s activities on the Moon are felt through their spacesuit. If an astronaut taps on another’s helmet, the latter “hears” it through the vibrations conducted by their spacesuit and helmet.

The Mysterious Music of Apollo

During the Apollo 10 mission, astronauts reported hearing a strange “whistling” sound, which some described as “outer-space-type music,” while they were orbiting the dark side of the Moon. This event remained classified until 2008 and spurred numerous speculations and theories.

However, the source of this “music” wasn’t extraterrestrial. The sounds were likely radio interference between the lunar module and the command module of the spacecraft. When two radios are close to each other and set to similar frequencies, they produce a whistling sound due to interference. This phenomenon, while eerie in the context of space exploration, is quite common and has a straightforward scientific explanation.

Sound on Mars

Mars has a very thin atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide, with traces of nitrogen and argon. This atmosphere is about 100 times less dense than Earth’s. The atmospheric pressure at the Martian surface averages 0.6% of Earth’s sea level pressure. Such a tenuous atmosphere significantly affects the way sound travels on Mars compared to Earth.

Sound travels through the movement of particles in a medium, be it solid, liquid, or gas. The speed and character of sound waves are influenced by the properties of this medium. Given Mars’ thin atmosphere, sound travels slower than it does on Earth. Additionally, the composition of the Martian atmosphere means that certain frequencies, especially higher ones, get absorbed more quickly and do not travel as far.

In practical terms, this means that sounds on Mars are quieter and muffled than we’re used to. High-pitched noises are particularly hard to hear. If you were to have a conversation on Mars without the aid of communication equipment, voices would sound different, and you’d need to be much closer to the source of a sound to hear it clearly.

Are Wind and Dust Storms Silent?

Mars has frequent wind events and massive dust storms. But would a human standing on the Martian surface hear these?

Wind on Mars, even during a strong gust, sounds very faint. Given the thin atmosphere, there simply aren’t enough particles colliding with one another to produce a sound as loud as on Earth.

The massive dust storms that engulf the entire planet are visually impressive, but are surprisingly quiet. The movement of the fine dust and the thin atmosphere does not generate the roaring sounds we associate with storms on Earth. Instead, you might hear a soft hiss or a very low rumble, but it would be much subtler than one might expect.

• Abbott, R.; et al. (29 June 2021). “Observation of Gravitational Waves from Two Neutron Star–Black Hole Coalescences”. The Astrophysical Journal Letters . 915 (1): L5. doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac082e
• Everest, F. (2001).  The Master Handbook of Acoustics . New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-136097-5.
• Kinsler, L.E.; Frey, A.R.; Coppens, A.B.; Sanders, J.V. (2000).  Fundamentals of Acoustics  (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-84789-5.
• Maurice, S.; et al. (2022). “In situ recording of Mars soundscape:. Nature. 605: 653-658. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04679-0

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Can Humans Hear Sound in Space?

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Is it possible to hear sounds in space? The short answer is "No." Yet, misconceptions about sound in space continue to exist, mostly due to the sound effects used in sci-fi movies and TV shows. How many times have we "heard" the starship Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon whoosh through space? It's so ingrained our ideas about space that people are often surprised to find out that it doesn't work that way. The laws of physics explain that it can't happen, but often enough producers don't really think about them. They're going for "effect."

Plus, it's not just a problem in TV or movies. There are mistaken ideas out there that planets make sounds , for example. What's really happening is that specific processes in their atmospheres (or rings) are sending out emissions that can be picked up by sensitive instruments. In order to understand them, scientists take the emissions and "heterodyne" them (that is, process them) to create something we can "hear" so they can try to analyze what they are. But, the planets themselves aren't making sounds.

The Physics of Sound

It is helpful to understand the physics of sound. Sound travels through the air as waves. When we speak, for example, the vibration of our vocal cords compresses the air around them. The compressed air moves the air around it, which carries the sound waves. Eventually, these compressions reach the ears of a listener, whose brain interprets that activity as sound. If the compressions are high frequency and moving fast, the signal received by the ears is interpreted by the brain as a whistle or a shriek. If they're lower frequency and moving more slowly, the brain interprets it as a drum or a boom or a low voice.

Here's the important thing to remember: without anything to compress, sound waves can't be transmitted. And, guess what? There's no "medium" in the vacuum of space itself that transmits sound waves. There is a chance that sound waves can move through and compress clouds of gas and dust, but we wouldn't be able to hear that sound. It would be too low or too high for our ears to perceive. Of course, if someone were in space without any protection against the vacuum, hearing any sound waves would be the least of their problems. 

Light waves (that aren't radio waves) are different. They do not require the existence of a medium in order to propagate. So light can travel through the vacuum of space unimpeded. This is why we can see distant objects like planets , stars , and galaxies . But, we can't hear any sounds they might make. Our ears are what pick up sound waves, and for a variety of reasons, our unprotected ears aren't going to be in space.

Haven't Probes Picked Up Sounds From the Planets?

This is a bit of a tricky one. NASA, back in the early 90s, released a five-volume set of space sounds. Unfortunately, they were not too specific about how the sounds were made exactly. It turns out the recordings weren't actually of sound coming from those planets. What was picked up were interactions of charged particles in the magnetospheres of the planets; trapped radio waves and other electromagnetic disturbances. Astronomers then took these measurements and converted them into sounds. It is similar to the way that a radio captures the radio waves (which are long-wavelength light waves) from radio stations and converts those signals into sound.

Why Apollo Astronauts Report Sounds Near the Moon

This one is truly strange. According to NASA transcripts of the Apollo moon missions, several of the astronauts reported hearing "music" when orbiting the Moon . It turns out that what they heard was entirely predictable radio frequency interference between the lunar module and the command modules.

The most prominent example of this sound was when the Apollo 15 astronauts were on the far side of the Moon. However, once the orbiting craft was over the near side of the Moon, the warbling stopped. Anyone who has ever played with a radio or done HAM radio or other experiments with radio frequencies would recognize the sounds at once. They were nothing abnormal and they certainly didn't propagate through the vacuum of space. 

Why Movies Have Spacecrafts Making Sounds

Since we know that no one can physically hear sounds in the vacuum of space, the best explanation for sound effects in TV and movies is this: if producers didn't make the rockets roar and the spacecraft go "whoosh", the soundtrack would be boring. And, that's true. It doesn't mean there's sound in space. All it means is that sounds are added to give the scenes a little drama. That's perfectly fine as long as people understand it doesn't happen in reality. 

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No, you cannot hear any sounds in near-empty regions of space. Sound travels through the vibration of atoms and molecules in a medium (such as air or water). In space, where there is no air, sound has no way to travel.

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• 09 November 2022

Sounds of the stars: how scientists are listening in on space

You have full access to this article via your institution.

The Perseus cluster contains thousands of galaxies in a cloud of super-heated gas. A tweet from NASA about the sound of the black hole at its centre has been played millions of times. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/E. Bulbul et al.

For astronomers who are sighted, the Universe is full of visual wonders. From shimmering planets to sparkling galaxies, the cosmos is spectacularly beautiful. But those who are blind or visually impaired cannot share that experience. So astronomers have been developing alternative ways to convey scientific information, such as using 3D printing to represent exploding stars, and sound to describe the collision of neutron stars.

On Friday, the journal Nature Astronomy will publish the latest in a series of articles on the use of sonification in astronomy 1 – 3 . Sonification describes the conversion of data (including research data) into digital audio files, which allows them to be heard, as well as read and seen. The researchers featured in Nature Astronomy show that sound representations can help scientists to better identify patterns or signals in large astronomical data sets 1 .

The work demonstrates that efforts to boost inclusivity and accessibility can have wider benefits. This is true not only in astronomy; sonification has also yielded discoveries in other fields that might otherwise not have been made. Research funders and publishers need to take note, and support interdisciplinary efforts that are simultaneously more innovative and inclusive.

Sonification and sound design for astronomy research, education and public engagement

For decades, astronomers have been making fundamental discoveries by listening to data, as well as looking at it. In the early 1930s, Karl Jansky, a physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey, traced static in radio communications to the centre of the Milky Way — a finding that led to the discovery of the Galaxy’s supermassive black hole and the birth of radio astronomy. More recently, Wanda Díaz-Merced, an astronomer at the European Gravitational Observatory in Cascina, Italy, who is blind, has used sonification in many pioneering projects, including the study of plasma patterns in Earth’s uppermost atmosphere 4 .

The number of sonification projects picked up around a decade ago, drawing in researchers from a range of backgrounds. Take Kimberly Arcand, a data-visualization expert and science communicator at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Arcand began by writing and speaking about astronomy, particularly discoveries coming from NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory. She then moved on to work that centred on the sense of touch; this included making 3D printed models of the ‘leftovers’ of exploded stars that conveyed details of the physics of these stellar explosions. When, in early 2020, the pandemic meant she was unable to get to a 3D printer, she shifted to working on sonification.

In August, NASA tweeted about the sound of the black hole at the centre of the Perseus galaxy cluster; the attached file has since been played more than 17 million times. In the same month, Arcand and others converted some of the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope into sound. They worked under the guidance of people who are blind and visually impaired to map the intensity and colours of light in the headline-grabbing pictures into audio.

Wanda Díaz-Merced has used sonification in many projects. Credit: NG Images/Alamy

These maps are grounded in technical accuracy. The sonification of an image of gas and dust in a distant nebula, for instance, uses loud high-frequency sounds to represent bright light near the top of the image, but lower-frequency loud sounds to represent bright light near the image’s centre. The black hole sonification translates data on sound waves travelling through space — created by the black hole’s impact on the hot gas that surrounds it — into the range of human hearing.

Scientists in other fields have also experimented with data sonification. Biophysicists have used it to help students understand protein folding 5 . Aspects of proteins are matched to sound parameters such as loudness and pitch, which are then combined into an audio representation of the complex folding process. Neuroscientists have explored whether it can help with the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease from brain scans 6 . Sound has even been used to describe ecological shifts caused by climate change in an Alaskan forest, with researchers assigning various musical instruments to different tree species 7 .

How one astronomer hears the Universe

In the long run, such approaches need to be rigorously evaluated to determine what they can offer that other techniques cannot. For all the technical accuracy displayed in individual projects, the Nature Astronomy series points out that there are no universally accepted standards for sonifying scientific data, and little published work that evaluates its effectiveness.

More funding would help. Many scientists who work on alternative data representations cobble together support from various sources, often in collaboration with musicians or sound engineers, and the interdisciplinary nature of such work makes it challenging to find sustained funding.

On 17 November, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs will highlight the use of sonification in the space sciences in a panel discussion that includes Díaz-Merced and Arcand. This aims to raise awareness of sonification both as a research tool and as a way to reduce barriers to participation in astronomy. It’s time to wholeheartedly support these efforts in every possible way.

Nature 611 , 204 (2022)

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Díaz-Merced, W. L. Sound for the Exploration of Space Physics Data . PhD thesis, Univ. Glasgow (2013).

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Rethinking Sound in Space: Physicists Demonstrate How Sound Can Cross the Vacuum

By University of Jyväskylä August 12, 2023

Sound waves tunneling across a vacuum gap. Credit: Zhuoran Geng and Ilari Maasilta

The iconic movie Alien once claimed: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” However, physicists Zhuoran Geng and Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, beg to differ. Their recent research suggests that under specific conditions, sound can indeed be transmitted powerfully across a vacuum.

Their findings, published recently in the journal Communications Physics , reveal that in certain scenarios, sound waves can “tunnel” through a vacuum gap between two solid objects, provided those objects are piezoelectric. These particular materials generate an electrical response when subjected to sound waves or vibrations. Given that an electric field can be present in a vacuum, it can effectively carry these sound waves across.

The requirement is that the size of the gap is smaller than the wavelength of the sound wave. This effect works not only in the audio range of frequencies (Hz-kHz), but also in ultrasound (MHz) and hypersound (GHz) frequencies, as long as the vacuum gap is made smaller as the frequencies increase.

“In most cases the effect is small, but we also found situations, where the full energy of the wave jumps across the vacuum with 100 % efficiency, without any reflections. As such, the phenomenon could find applications in microelectromechanical components (MEMS, smartphone technology) and in the control of heat,” says Professor Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä.

Reference: “Complete tunneling of acoustic waves between piezoelectric crystals” by Zhuoran Geng and Ilari J. Maasilta, 14 July 2023, Communications Physics . DOI: 10.1038/s42005-023-01293-y

The study was funded by the Academy of Finland and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program.

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10 comments on "rethinking sound in space: physicists demonstrate how sound can cross the vacuum".

This is BS. The sound is not propogating through a vaccuum, an electric field is.

According to the topological vortex gravitational field theory, sound waves are similar to light waves that the formation and propagation are inseparable from the interaction of vortex gravitational fields, and produce different physical effects in different vortex environments. Vortex gravity is the source of all things and the most essential force that maintains and connects the world. From the accretion disk of the universe to quantum spin, there is no exception.

Ho hum. We’ve been transmitting sound through vacuum for decades…by converting it to radio waves. Essentially similar to what they described. Nothing new here.

Oh please, that’s not sound through vacuum. You can just as easily modulate light to carry sound to the edge of the universe.

The blog you posted is beautiful and it has been very beneficial. Start shopping for school must-have items for less. Back-to-school uniforms under $10 can be gotten at Amazon. Moreover, these wears are well designed and you will love them.  Please don't hesitate to check my content on this same topic.

On the cusp of long range space communication a gapless time delay. I have a question can sound waves halt the combustion process of fire disrupting the reaction stage.

Sound waves dislike halting combustion, and will only do so if given proper recognition for their work, and are taken out for ice cream afterwards.

Wayall… I’ll tell ya what. If this is true then there is gonnuh be a bunch of sound already existing maybe it will have some intelligible content. Record it. Let the world hear it.

“Scientists prove the sound can pass over vacuum provided at the source is a microphone and at the receiver end is a speaker. Coupled together”

In the beginning was the word!

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NASA says there is a misconception that there is no sound in space

NASA released a sound from the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster. What you'll hear is pressure waves emitted from the black hole causing ripples in the star cluster's hot gas.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Good morning. I'm A Martinez. There's no sound in space, right?

(SOUNDBITE OF HUMMING)

MARTINEZ: That's sound released by NASA from the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster. What you're hearing is pressure waves emitted from the black hole causing ripples in the cluster of stars' hot gas. But in my warped imagination, it sounds like an alien civilization screaming for their lives. I know; I'm a ghoul. It's MORNING EDITION.

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Listen to the eerie sounds of distant galaxies in breathtaking NASA video

Hear the beauty of deep space thanks to the sonification of telescope data.

Relish in the pleasant thrumming of galaxies and stars in deep space whose data has been "sonified" into orchestral music.

Sound cannot travel through space, thanks to the lack of air to act as a medium. Instead, NASA has produced musical tones from the same telescope data that is manifested into pictures such that you can now hear the beauty of space.

"The visualization team started with the scientific observations from the various telescopes, and then applied some of the same software that Hollywood uses in their feature films to the data," Frank Summers, who is a visualization scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, said in a statement .

A newly released 30-second video glides you through the five galaxies of Stephan's Quintet in the Pegasus constellation, four of which are gravitationally bound to each other at about 290 million light-years away while the fifth one is an innocent bystander roughly 39 million light-years away.

Related : Sounds in space: What noises do planets make?

The new video is still except for a white horizontal line that combs through the galaxy group and reveals where the sounds are coming from. Each of the five galaxies lets out a big whoosh while the foreground stars hum in warm and mellowed tones of a xylophone-like instrument called a glass marimba. The musical piece is also sprinkled with higher pitches of a string instrument, which represents spikes around a star in telescope images that are formed when starlight bends around the hexagonal mirrors of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

"Astronomy has always been very visual, but there's no reason why we have to represent the data through that manner alone," Kimberly Arcand, who is a visualization scientist at the Chandra X-ray Center in Massachusetts, said in the same statement . "This type of depiction is taking the scientific story of Stephan's Quintet — the deep, dense, and beautiful dataset — and translating it into an auditory experience."

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As part of an ongoing project to convert telescope data into audio experiences, NASA also released sonifications of two other celestial targets by combining data from the agency's Chandra X-ray Observatory , JWST, Hubble Space Telescope , and the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope .

The musical piece on R Aquarii, which is a binary star system of a dim white dwarf and a pulsating red giant about 650 light-years from Earth, increases in volume in proportion to the brightness of sources and their distances from the center. 

At two o'clock and eight o'clock positions, you can hear a strong wind, which reflects a jet of ionized matter blasting out of the white dwarf and slamming into surrounding stellar material. Hubble's data, which are visualized as "ribbon-like arcs" in the image, can be heard as soothing sounds like those that resonate from Tibetan singing bowls while Chandra's data are represented as a "windy purr," NASA representatives wrote in an image description published Tuesday (June 20). 

The soundtrack of Messier 104 (or M104) — a giant galaxy in the Virgo cluster about 28 million light-years away, is more like a whistle that shrills and mellows according to the brightness of the sources.

Translating data into sounds can help people process the information in different ways and bring to light certain aspects of data that were not noticed previously, scientists say. Such data sonifications also make the beauty of the universe accessible to visually impaired space enthusiasts.

 —  Listen as NASA transforms stunning space photos into cosmic music (video)

 —  Iconic James Webb Space Telescope images turned into music

 —  Scientists are turning data into sound to listen to the whispers of the universe (and more)

"Sonifications offer a sensory way for me to experience the scale and potency of astronomical phenomena," Christine Malec, who is a member of the blind and partially sighted community supporting NASA's sonification project, said in the same statement. "They are an invitation to blind and partially-sighted people to listen, enjoy, and then go deeper by reading to understand what exactly is being heard."

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur.

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Why is this happening?

Sound is the mechanical vibrations of the gaseous, liquid or solid molecules (on Earth, it is air, water and any solid bodies — stones, metals, etc.). Oscillations form waves of different frequencies, but the human ear can only perceive those in the range of 16 Hz – 20 kHz. The sounds below (infrasound) and above (ultrasound) are beyond our physical perception.

There are gas clouds in space that can act as media, but the farther they extend from planets and other cosmic bodies, the more rarefied they become, which makes the occurrence of mechanical vibrations in such low-molecule clouds almost impossible. Simply put, there are no sounds in space that we can hear. So, the Alien slogan doesn’t lie. In space, no one can hear you scream, whereas the whistle of laser guns and the roar of combat aircraft explosions in all space action movies are only special effects to impress the viewer.

But space cannot be absolutely silent, you may say, and you will be right. The universe is constantly communicating with us — but through other signals that scientists have learned to convert into sound.

How did NASA get sounds from space?

Sound can not travel through outer space, but electromagnetic waves, such as ultraviolet, infrared and gamma radiation waves, as well as radio waves, can. These waves are recorded by special instruments installed on spacecraft that can convert them into sound. This method is called sonification. But how does it work?

Any sound wave has three variables — frequency (tonality, pitch), amplitude (loudness), and rhythm. To convert electromagnetic and radio waves into sound waves, they are matched with these variables in certain proportions. The first stage of processing usually eliminates spacecraft engine sound and other unwanted noise. The pure sound waves are then filtered out and interpolated to cover the silent areas. The received data is scaled to the range of audible frequencies.

NASA and other space agencies have probes that make similar measurements and transformations. Thanks to this, we can hear sounds in space, for example, the sounds of the planets, the Sun, and even a black hole’s scary noise ! Let’s find out how this data was obtained and what it sounds like.

What does space sound like?

Over the years of space exploration, dozens of sounds from space have gone through the process of sonification. It is now established that all objects in the solar system sound differently. Mostly, those are quiet, fantastic fusion sounds, similar to layout effects from the music of Vangelis or Jean Michel Jarre. NASA has put together a playlist of the Sun and planet noises, which you can listen to on Soundcloud . And we will discuss the most interesting space sounds in more detail.

Chirping Comet

In 2014, the Philae lander from the ESA and NASA Rosetta probe landed on the surface of comet 67P (Churyumov-Gerasimenko) and, using the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) instrument, recorded the oscillations of electromagnetic waves in the comet’s magnetic field. These space sounds have a 40–50 MHz frequency, so to make the radiation audible, the researchers transposed this data into sound using a magnetometer, increasing its frequency by 10 thousand times. The result is strange chirps and clicks.

Later, astrophysicists managed to explain why the comet makes such a sound: it’s all about the stream of charged particles (plasma) that bombard the comet and cause unusual vibrations when passing through its magnetic field.

Humming Sun

In 2018, one of the instruments aboard the SOHO space solar observatory, the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI), recorded fluctuations and vibrations in the Sun’s atmosphere for 40 days, which scientists then converted into sound. The main way to measure solar oscillations is to fix the Doppler shift of spectral lines. For the vibrations to reach the frequency range accessible to the human ear, scientists at Stanford University filtered the data by frequency and accelerated it by 42,000 times. The result is a low-frequency quiet rumble, reminding one of a heating element sound.

Roaring Jupiter

In 2016, NASA’s Jupiter-studying satellite, Juno, recorded “roaring” sounds from the solar wind colliding with the planet’s magnetosphere. For this, the Waves system, which tunes to the electromagnetic waves of Jupiter, was used. Ionised particles are sent into the magnetosphere at a speed of several million kilometres per hour and then abruptly slow down, making frightening sounds.

Later in 2021, during the next flyby of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, Juno made another recording, approaching the closest distance to the satellite — 1,038 km. Scientists became particularly interested in the frequency increase that can be heard in the middle of the recording. They attribute this to the transition of Juno from one region of the magnetosphere to another, namely from the night side of the satellite to the day side. The sounds of Ganymede reminded us of the funny “chatter” of the R2D2 robot from Star Wars. Don’t you think so?

Hoarse Saturn

In 2017, the Cassini mission, using the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument (RPWS), recorded the “sounds” of plasma waves emitted by Saturn’s rings. They are electromagnetic whistles, which can be perceived as white noise, and occur when the charged particles that make up the plasma begin to perform complex oscillatory movements under the influence of electric and magnetic fields. On the recording, you can hear how the radiation emanating from Saturn is distinguished by a large number of high and low tones, as well as a frequent change in sound frequency.

Silent Mars

In late 2021, NASA released seven audio recordings of the data received by the Mars rover Perseverance. One can hear how the rover rides on the surface of the red planet and how the Martian wind blows. The researchers note that on Mars, the lower spectrum frequencies of the sound range are well distributed — quite unlike on Earth.

Windy Venus

In 2021, the joint ESA and JAXA mission BepiColombo recorded the solar wind blowing on Venus. The recording was made at a 550 km distance from the planet. As a result, two versions of the sound were obtained. The first sound was recorded with an Italian spring accelerometer (ISA). The device recorded accelerations measured by the spacecraft, which were then translated into an audible frequency. The ESA said the accelerometer was also affected by spacecraft tides craft as it flew past Venus at varying distances. Another sound, captured by the probe’s magnetometer, picked up low-frequency wind-like noises caused by the interaction of the solar wind with Venus’s atmosphere.

Why do scientists collect the sounds of space?

Of course, NASA, ESA and other space agencies do not record sounds from space to enjoy them on relaxing evenings. You might be surprised, but sound is one of the main tools for studying space. Studies of the Sun’s structure, planets and asteroids, the discovery of water on the moon — all this was done with the help of sound. Sound has no competition in studying electrically conductive media: plasma, oceans, and the internal structure of planets, where electromagnetic waves do not penetrate.

In other words, without sound, our understanding of space and other worlds’ structures would be less informative. Of course, this is just one interpretation, but who knows, maybe someday we will really know what alien civilisations sound like… And, hopefully, we will not want to scream once we hear that.

An amateur rocket enthusiast with a keen interest in all space-related activity. Looking forward to the day when the UK starts launching rockets into space and I'm able to watch launches (from a safe distance of course).

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Ask an Astronomer

Does sound travel faster in space?

The short answer is that sound does not travel in space at all.  

Since sound is received by our ears in the form of vibrating air and there is virtually no air in space, there is nothing to vibrate to make a sound. You could even imagine the loudest sounds you can think of, like a giant explosion, a star coming into existence, or even a star imploding.

In space, none of these would not make a sound. So, when you can hear all of the laser shots in Star Wars or any other films set in space , realistically, you would not hear a thing. But humans have designed a way around this obvious drawback for communication in space travel.

However, if you were in a spaceship where there is a self-contained flow of oxygen and therefore air, you would be able to hear the person next to you talking. Imagine the spaceship as its own little bubble with a pocket of air that can vibrate making sound.

This is just like the air in the spacesuit of an astronaut: the fact that it is a separate self-contained bubble allows the astronaut inside to hear themselves breathe, talk and move. But if they tried to speak to another astronaut who happened to float by in space, they would not hear them at all.

The only way they would be able to hear them is with the use of a two-way communicator. These radio communicators make use of radio waves which can travel through space as they do not need air to do so.

So, imagine you are trying to tell an astronaut passing by that you like the color of their space suit, you’d be able to hear it yourself in your own spacesuit, but the astronaut with the nice space suit will be hearing your voice after it has been converted to radio waves, then back to normal sound in their own suit.

Newer films that are set in space have begun to play around with the fact that sound cannot travel in space without the use of radio waves. This experimentation can add a little more suspense thanks to the silence of a ship exploding.

But older films set in space that are full of those classic ‘pew-pew’ sounds a factually incorrect and the sound is just there for entertainment purposes. In reality, if a Death Star crept up on you, unless you were looking directly at it, you would not even know it was near you since you would have no way of hearing it through space.

So, not only does sound not travel faster in space , it doesn’t travel at all through space naturally. Unless you have something like a spaceship or a space suit which can contain its own air, noise will not occur. If there are no air molecules to vibrate, sound will never reach a human ear.

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Why Doesn’t Sound Travel in Space? Exploring the Physics Behind It

By Happy Sharer

Introduction

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered why stars twinkle but no sound can be heard? This is because sound simply cannot travel in space. In this article, we will explore the physics of why sound does not travel in space, examining topics such as pressure, density, temperature, and how sound differs from light propagation in a vacuum.

Exploring the Physics of Why Sound Does Not Travel in Space

In order to understand why sound does not travel in space, it is important to first understand the physics of sound in general. Sound is created by vibrations that cause molecules in the air to move back and forth. These molecules then bump into other molecules, creating a chain reaction that propagates through the air until the original vibration dissipates. In order for sound to travel, there must be a medium for it to move through, such as air or water.

Pressure and Density

In space, there is a near-vacuum, meaning that there are very few molecules present in the environment. Without enough molecules to create a chain reaction, sound waves are unable to propagate. Even if there were enough molecules present, the pressure and density of the environment would be too low for sound to travel. This is because sound waves require a certain amount of pressure and density in order to travel through a medium.

Vacuums and Sound Waves

A vacuum is an area devoid of air and other particles, which means that sound waves cannot travel through them. This is because sound waves require a medium such as air, water, or other particles in order to travel. In a vacuum, there is nothing for sound waves to move through, so they are unable to propagate.

Examining the Role of Temperature on Sound’s Ability to Travel

Temperature also plays an important role in determining whether or not sound can travel in space. The higher the temperature of an environment, the more energy the molecules have, which makes them more likely to vibrate and create sound waves. On the other hand, the lower the temperature of an environment, the less energy the molecules have, making it harder for them to vibrate and create sound waves.

The Impact of Temperature on Sound Waves

In space, temperatures can range from -270°C to over 10,000°C. At these extreme temperatures, molecules have very little energy, making it nearly impossible for them to vibrate and create sound waves. Even if molecules did have enough energy to vibrate, the near-vacuum nature of space would still prevent sound waves from travelling.

How Astronauts Communicate in Space Without Sound

Astronauts must find other ways to communicate in space since sound cannot travel. Instead of using sound waves, they rely on radio waves, which are electromagnetic waves that can travel through a vacuum. Radio waves can be used to transmit messages, allowing astronauts to communicate with each other and mission control back on Earth.

Comparing the Difference Between Sound and Light Propagation

It is important to note that while sound cannot travel in space, light can. This is because light is made up of photons, which do not need a medium to travel through. Instead, they are able to travel through a vacuum, something sound waves are unable to do.

How Sound Differs from Light

The main difference between sound and light is that sound requires a medium to travel through, whereas light does not. This is why sound cannot travel in space, but light can. Additionally, sound waves are longitudinal waves, meaning that they vibrate in the same direction that they travel, whereas light is a transverse wave, meaning that it vibrates perpendicular to the direction it travels.

The Impact of a Vacuum on Both Types of Energy

A vacuum has a unique effect on both sound and light. As previously mentioned, sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum, while light can. A vacuum also affects the speed of light, causing it to travel faster than it would in a medium such as air. This is why light is the fastest form of energy, as it is unaffected by the presence of a vacuum.

In conclusion, this article explored the physics behind why sound does not travel in space. We examined topics such as pressure, density, temperature, and how sound differs from light propagation in a vacuum. We found that sound requires a medium to travel through, and that in space, there is a near-vacuum with very few molecules present. Additionally, the extreme temperatures in space make it even harder for sound waves to propagate. Finally, we noted that while sound cannot travel in space, light can, as it is composed of photons that do not need a medium to travel through.

It is easy to take for granted the fact that we can hear sound here on Earth. However, it is important to remember that sound is a complex phenomenon that relies on multiple factors in order to travel. Without the right conditions, sound simply cannot travel in space.

(Note: Is this article not meeting your expectations? Do you have knowledge or insights to share? Unlock new opportunities and expand your reach by joining our authors team. Click Registration to join us and share your expertise with our readers.)

Hi, I'm Happy Sharer and I love sharing interesting and useful knowledge with others. I have a passion for learning and enjoy explaining complex concepts in a simple way.

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Can Sound Travel Through Empty Space

Table of Contents:

Can Humans Hear Sound in Space? . Sound doesn’t move through space because there are no molecules to convey it. So, why did Apollo astronauts report hearing music when orbiting the Moon?

Voyager and Cassini spacecraft spotted spokes in Saturn’s rings. Spokes are the ghostly radial markings discovered in the rings by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft 25 years ago. When observed using a radio astronomy receiver, the process of the spokes’ rotation gave off radio emissions, which astronomers processed to create ghostly “sounds”, although no such sound was heard in space.

Video advice: Why sound cannot travel in space

The reason why you cannot hear a thing in space is since there is no air, and without air, there are no waves, which mean without air there are no means sound waves could be made. It is like a vortex as soon as you say somewhat it is like, it will just disappear into the surrounding emptiness around you.

Is it possible to hear sounds in space? The short answer is “No. ” Yet, misconceptions about sound in space continue to exist, mostly due to the sound effects used in sci-fi movies and TV shows. How many times have we “heard” the starship Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon whoosh through space? It’s so ingrained our ideas about space that people are often surprised to find out that it doesn’t work that way. The laws of physics explain that it can’t happen, but often enough producers don’t really think about them. They’re going for “effect.

Can sound travel through empty space why? – Sound does not travel at all in space. The vacuum of outer space has essentially zero air. Because sound is just vibrating air, space has no air to vibrate and therefore no sound. Radio is a form of electromagnetic radiation just like light and can therefore travel through the vacuum of space just fine.

“Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. ” “Light in a vacuum always travels at the same speed. ” Those additional three words in a vacuum are very important. A vacuum is a region with no matter in it. This vacuum speed of light, c, is what the statements from relativity describe.

Sound Can Travel Through Space After All

It’s a fact well-known enough to be the tagline to the 1979 sci-fi horror blockbuster Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Or to put it another way, sound can’t be carried in the empty vacuum of space – there just aren’t any molecules for t.

It goes without saying well-known enough is the tagline towards the 1979 sci-fi horror blockbuster Alien: “Wide, no-one can hear you scream. ” In order to place it one other way, seem can not be transported within the empty vacuum of space – there just are not any molecules for that audio vibrations to maneuver through. Well, that maybe true: only up to and including point.

As it turns out, space isn’t a complete and empty void, though large swathes of it are. The interstellar gas and dust left behind by old stars and sometimes used to create new ones does have the potential to carry sound waves – we just aren’t able to listen to them. The particles are so spread out, and the resulting sound waves are of such a low frequency, that they’re beyond the capabilities of human hearing. As Kiona Smith-Strickland explains at Gizmodo, sounds travel as molecules bump into each other, the same way that ripples spread out when you drop a stone into a pond: as the ripples get farther and farther away, the sound gradually loses its force, which is why we can only hear sounds generated near to us. As a sound wave passes, it causes oscillations in the air pressure, and the time between these oscillations represents the frequency of the sound (measured in Hertz); the distance between the oscillating peaks is the wavelength. If the distance between the air particles is greater than this wavelength, the sound can’t bridge the gap and the ‘ripples’ stop.

Many students believe sound can travel through empty space – Light, Sound and Waves.

• Diagnostic Resources
• How are we able to hear? (5-11)
• What travels and what doesn’t travel? (11-14)
• Sounds in solids and gases (14-16)

Sound in Space?

This demo explores the possibility of sound in space and communications to astronauts.

Once the lighted matches are dropped in to the bottle and also the bottle is sealed, the fireplace melts away the oxygen that is incorporated in the bottle. Without the majority of the bottle’s original oxygen, an incomplete although imperfect vacuum forms within the bottle. Due to this vacuum, you can’t hear the bell jingle before you allow air to go in the bottle.

• What You Need
• What’s Going On?
• What Changes . . .

In the vacuum of space, there are no (or very, very few) particles to vibrate, so sound cannot travel through this medium. You might think this presents a communications conundrum for NASA: How can we talk to astronauts who are orbiting earth? The solution is radio waves. Radio waves travel perfectly fine through a vacuum because they are a type of electromagnetic wave (light), and electromagnetic waves do not need a medium to travel through. Similarly, we can still see light emitted from the sun even though a vacuum stands between the sun and earth.

Video advice: Can You Hear Sound in Space?

If space is a vacuum, is it possible to hear sound in it? Trace is here to discuss why sound travels differently in space.

Sound as a Mechanical Wave

A sound wave is a mechanical wave that propagates along or through a medium by particle-to-particle interaction. As a mechanical wave, sound requires a medium in order to move from its source to a distant location. Sound cannot travel through a region of space that is void of matter (i.e., a vacuum).

Seem and music are areas of our everyday physical experience. Just like humans have eyes for that recognition of sunshine and color, therefore we are outfitted with ears for that recognition of seem. We rarely take time to ponder the options and behaviors of seem and also the mechanisms through which sounds are created, propagated, and detected. The foundation to have an knowledge of seem, music and hearing may be the physics of waves. Seem is really a wave that’s produced by vibrating objects and propagated via a medium in one place to another. Within this unit, we’ll investigate nature, qualities and behaviors of seem waves and apply fundamental wave concepts towards an awareness of music.

The Sound of Space: Why The Cosmos Isn’t As Quiet As You’d Think

Visit SoundCloud to share what you think space may sound like.

This short article was initially printed around the Conversation. Browse the original article. We all know that there’s seem on planets and moons within the solar system—places where there is a medium by which seem waves could be transmitted, just like an atmosphere or perhaps an sea. What about empty space? You might have learned for sure that space is silent, maybe from your teacher or with the marketing from the movie Alien—’In space, no-one can hear you scream. ‘ The most popular reason behind this really is that space is really a vacuum and thus there is no medium for seem to visit through. However that is not right. Space isn’t completely empty—there really are a couple of particles and seem waves going swimming. Actually, seem waves within the area surrounding our planet are important to the ongoing technological existence. Additionally they seem pretty weird!

What does empty space sound like? We need your help to find out

Listen to some weird space sounds and help identify crunches, whistles and other odd effects. It could help save our satellites.

We can’t hear these magnetosonic waves wide. This is because pressure variations are extremely small at -100dB seem pressure level (a persons hearing threshold is all about +60dB). Actually, you’d require an eardrum similar to how big our planet to listen to them. Their ultra-low frequencies will also be way below what we should could hear. Therefore if we can’t hear them, so why do we love them about the subject?

Recording the inaudible

We know that there is sound on planets and moons in the solar system – places where there’s a medium through which sound waves can be transmitted, such as an atmosphere or an ocean. But what about empty space? You may have been told definitively that space is silent, maybe by your teacher or through the marketing of the movie Alien – “In space no one can hear you scream”. The common explanation for this is that space is a vacuum and so there’s no medium for sound to travel through.

Welcome to How Things Fly

Sound can’t be carried in the empty vacuum of space because sound waves need a medium to vibrate through such as air or water. Until recently, we thought that since there is no air in space, that no sound could travel and that is still true but only up to a point. Space isn’t actually completely empty, there are large areas of gas and dust that do have the potential to carry sound waves. However, because the particles are so spread out, the sounds waves they produce are at such a low frequency, humans are incapable of hearing them.

Does sound travel faster in space?

Sound does not travel at all in space. The vacuum of outer space has essentially zero air. Because sound is just vibrating air, space has no air to vibrate and therefore no sound. If you are sitting in a space ship and another space ship explodes, you would hear nothing. Exploding bombs, crashing asteroids, supernovas, and burning planets would similarly be silent in space. In a space ship, you could of course hear the other passengers because your ship is filled with air. Additionally, a living human will always be able to hear himself talk, breath, and circulate blood, because the air in his space suit which sustains his life also transmits sound. But two astronauts in space suits floating around in space will not be able to talk to each other directly no matter how hard they yell, even if they are only inches away. Their inability to talk directly is not caused by their helmets getting in the way, but is rather caused by the vacuum of space not carrying sound at all. That is why space suits are equipped with two-way radio communicators.

Video advice: I’M BACK! Chatty Catch Up, January Recap!

Welcome back! If you’d like to help support my channel, you can do that here: https://ko-fi.com/carlajenkins – never expected, always very much appreciated.

What does empty space sound like?

You may have been told definitively that space is silent , maybe by your teacher or through the marketing of the movie Alien – “In space no one can hear you scream”. The common explanation for this is that space is a vacuum and so there's no medium for sound to travel through.

Can you have sound without air?

No, Sound can't be carried in the empty vacuum of space because sound waves need a medium to vibrate through such as air or water.

How fast does sound travel in empty space?

The speed of sound in a vacuum is zero meters per second , as sound cannot travel in a vacuum. Sound is a wave, which means it spreads through the vibration of particles in a medium, such as water or air. Since a vacuum is empty space, there is no medium for the sound to travel through.

Do sound waves travel in a vacuum?

Sound waves cannot travel in the vacuum of space because there is no medium to transmit these mechanical waves. Classical waves transfer energy without transporting matter through the medium.

Can you burp fart in space?

Hadfield confirmed: There is no burping in space . The reasons why are kind of gross. On Earth, gravity pulls liquids and solids to down to the bottom of our digestive systems, while gases stay up top and get forced back up the esophagus as a burp. That can't happen in space.

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