sound does not travel in space because

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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Chris Impey receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

University of Arizona provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] .

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.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to [email protected] . Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

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

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] .

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.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to [email protected] . Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article is republished from The Conversation , a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Chris Impey , University of Arizona .

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How do astronomers know the age of the planets and stars?

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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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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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Explainer: Is there sound in space?

Imma Perfetto

Imma Perfetto is a science journalist at Cosmos. She has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Science Communication from the University of Adelaide.

If you’ve seen the famous promotional poster for the 1979 cult science fiction horror film Alien , then you might be under the impression that we can’t hear any sounds in space – let alone screams of abject terror.

So how could the 2018 SCINEMA International Science Film Festival Best Experimental Film, Astroturf , use the strange sounds of recordings from satellites in space?

No, there isn’t sound in space.

Sound doesn’t exist in space, at least not the way we experience it on Earth. This is because sound travels through the vibration of particles, and space is a vacuum . On Earth, sound mainly travels to your ears by way of vibrating air molecules, but in near-empty regions of space there are no (or very, very few) particles to vibrate – so no sound.

We’re lucky that’s the case, because otherwise the sound of the Sun would roar at an impressive 100 decibels to us on Earth – like hearing a rock concert all day every day. 

Sound travels in what’s known as a longitudinal wave, which causes back-and-forth vibration of the particles in the medium through which it is moving. It propagates through a medium at the speed of sound which varies from substance to substance – generally more slowly through gases, faster in liquids, and fastest in solids.

This back and forth causes regions of high pressure where particles are compressed together (compressions) and regions of low pressure where they are more spread apart (rarefactions). The distance it takes to complete one wave cycle – for instance, the distance between each repeating compression – is what’s known as its wavelength.

The frequency of the wave is measured in hertz (Hz), which is a measure of the number of waves that pass through a fixed point in a second. So, the longer the wavelength the lower the frequency, and vice versa.

Human beings can usually hear sounds within a narrow range of frequencies, usually between 20Hz and 20,000Hz.

So, what are we hearing in Astroturf ?

This short film is just one part of a greater anthology , where independent filmmakers were challenged by the Space Sound Effects (SSFX) project to create short films which incorporated sounds recorded in space by satellites.

Now, although we just reminded ourselves that space is a vacuum, it should be clarified that it isn’t completely empty. For instance, it contains solar wind which streams off the Sun – a constant flow of charged particles ( plasma ) which Earth’s magnetic field protects us from.

The magnetosphere shields us from this ionising radiation and from erosion of the atmosphere by solar wind, but the interactions occurring here are complex and dynamic, and can result in phenomena which disrupt the technology we rely upon, such as electrical grids, global positioning systems (GPS), and weather forecasts.

It’s these plasma waves, electromagnetic vibrations, which can be measured. But the waves fall within the ultra low frequency (ULF) range – with frequencies from fractions of a millihertz to 1Hz – that are undetectable to human hearing. For scale, that’s wavelengths of around 300,000km, and pressure variations so small you’d need an eardrum comparable to the size of Earth to hear them.

Images of the Milky Way sound like this

But satellites can still observe them. Scientists took a year’s worth of these recordings, dramatically sped up their playback, and condensed them down to just six minutes of audio at frequencies within the human auditory range. This is a process called sonification – like visualisation but instead with sound – where non-speech audio is used to convey information or data, the most famous application of which is the Geiger counter.

This audio was also used in a citizen science project in which high-school students identified an interesting sound-stamp that, when further explored by the scientists, turned out to be a coronal mass ejection – or solar storm – arriving at Earth. By making the data audible they were able to pinpoint an interesting event which the researchers wouldn’t have otherwise spotted.

Detecting the pitch and frequency of electromagnetic waves has also been used to tell us about the density of gas surrounding the Voyager 1 spacecraft – the space probe launched by NASA in 1977 to study the outer solar system and interstellar space.

From this they were able to determine when Voyager 1 had left the heliosphere – the vast bubble of magnetism surrounding the Sun and planets in the solar system – and moved into the denser gas in the interstellar medium between planetary systems.

Are there other instances of the sonification of space data?

There are a lot of these “ sounds of space ” collected by instruments on various spacecraft, from Juno spacecraft observing the plasma wave signals emanating from Jupiter’s ionosphere, to Cassini’s detection of radio emissions from Saturn (which are well above the audio frequency range and are shifted downward so we can hear them).

Another example is gravitational waves. These stretch and shrink space and can be detected through the distortion, or vibration, of space between masses – but needs to be amplified a billion times to be audible .

Going another route, X-ray, optical and infrared light can be translated into sounds in an ensemble musical piece to represent the position and brightness of light sources in a region of space in the Milky Way.

So, while we can’t hear sound in space as we can on Earth, it’s still possible for us to convert the emissions of space into something the human ear can perceive – and isn’t that much nicer to listen to than a scream, anyway?

Originally published by Cosmos as Explainer: Is there sound in space?

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How does sound travel in space.

Sound does not travel in space. Sound requires molecules to travel through, and there are none in space because space is a vacuum.

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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.

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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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Why isn’t there any sound in space? An astronomer explains

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.

Article written by Chris Impey , University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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Does Sound Travel Faster or Slower in Space?

By quora .com | oct 22, 2018.

Viktor T. Toth :

It is often said that sound doesn’t travel in space. And it is true … in empty space. Sound is pressure waves, that is, propagating changes in pressure. In the absence of pressure, there can be no pressure waves, so there is no sound.

But space is is not completely empty and not completely devoid of pressure. Hence, it carries sound. But not in a manner that would match our everyday experience.

For instance, if you were to put a speaker in interstellar space, its membrane may be moving back and forth, but it would be exceedingly rare for it to hit even a single atom or molecule. Hence, it would fail to transfer any noticeable sound energy to the thin interstellar medium. Even the somewhat denser interplanetary medium is too rarefied for sound to transfer efficiently from human scale objects; this is why astronauts cannot yell to each other during spacewalks. And just as it is impossible to transfer normal sound energy to this medium, it will also not transmit it efficiently, since its atoms and molecules are too far apart, and they just don’t bounce into each other that often. Any “normal” sound is attenuated to nothingness.

However, if you were to make your speaker a million times bigger, and let its membrane move a million times more slowly, it would be able to transfer sound energy more efficiently even to that thin medium. And that energy would propagate in the form of (tiny) changes in the (already very tiny) pressure of the interstellar medium, i.e., it would be sound.

So yes, sound can travel in the intergalactic, interstellar, interplanetary medium, and very, very low frequency sound (many octaves below anything you could possibly hear) plays an important role in the formation of structures (galaxies, solar systems). In fact, this is the mechanism through which a contracting cloud of gas can shed its excess kinetic energy and turn into something compact, such as a star.

How fast do such sounds travel, you ask? Why, there is no set speed. The general rule is that for a so-called perfect fluid (a medium that is characterized by its density and pressure, but has no viscosity or stresses) the square of the speed of sound is the ratio of the medium’s pressure to its energy density. The speed of sound, therefore, can be anything between 0 (for a pressureless medium, which does not carry sound) to the speed of light divided by the square root of three (for a very hot, so-called ultrarelativistic gas).

This post originally appeared on Quora. Click here to view.

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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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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 you hear sound in space?

October 12, 2023 By Emma Vanstone Leave a Comment

To answer this question, you first need to understand how sound travels on Earth. In very basic terms, sound travels from the source of the sound to our ears by vibrating air molecules. Sound waves need a medium to travel through. Space is a mostly empty vacuum, so there’s no medium for sounds to travel through. In summary, no, you can’t hear sound in space like we can on Earth .

However, scientists use a process called sonification to convert the different waves found in space into sounds.

Listen to the sounds of space

This data sonification of the black hole at the centre of the Perseus Cluster is amazing!

Last Updated on October 12, 2023 by Emma Vanstone

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For the First Time, Scientists Have Tunneled Sound Through a Vacuum

Wait ... how is that possible?

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• Because space is a vacuum nearly devoid of particles, sound can’t travel through its vast emptiness.
• However, scientists from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland have successfully “tunneled” sound through such a vacuum via an electromagnetic effect.
• Although this experiment seems to flout the idea of space’s silent nature, this “tunneling” can only occur over extremely small distances.

It’s a brilliant tagline for a horror film set in space , as this inaudible concept is both terrifying and scientifically true. Sound waves (also known as “acoustic phonons”) require particles to travel— whether through air, water, or some other medium —and the vacuum of space doesn’t have nearly enough particles to transmit sound. In other words, it’s the perfect hunting grounds for an acid-spewing, human-hungry xenomorph.

However, Alien ’s macabre motto now comes with an asterisk. Scientists from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland successfully “ tunneled ” sound through a vacuum gap between two solids—specifically, two zinc oxide crystals.

“[Sound waves] do not exist in vacuum, leading to the initial conclusion that it is impossible for the vacuum to transmit the energy of an acoustic wave between two separated media,” the researchers write in a study published this week in the journal Communications Physics . “However, at the atomic scale the vibrations of the nuclei can propagate via their electrical interactions through vacuum . Thus, a question can be raised, whether acoustic phonons can also be transmitted across larger than atomic scale vacuum gaps through some electromagnetic mechanism.”

These crystals are both piezoelectric, meaning that they produce electricity when they experience heat or a mechanical stress. In this case, this includes sound. Because electricity can exist in a vacuum, the sound can actually jump—or tunnel—from one crystal to another.

This “tunneling” occurs in frequencies in our audible range (such as a human scream, perhaps) as well as ultrasonic and hypersonic frequencies beyond human hearing . Of course, there is one big catch—the distance between these two crystals can’t be larger than the wavelength of the sound wave itself. So, as frequencies increase, the gap between the two crystals must get smaller and smaller.

This method of sound “tunneling” also isn’t perfect. Sometimes, sound waves were warped, reflected, or otherwise distorted as it traveled via this electric field. However, on other occasions, the sound waves survived the microscopic vacuum journey unaffected.

“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,” Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä and study co-author said in a press statement . “As such, the phenomenon could find applications in microelectromechanical components (smartphone technology) and in the control of heat.”

In other words, the xenomorph can maintain its advantage.

Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough. 

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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.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Related Articles:

• Can Sound Travel Through Space
• A Wave That Can Travel Through Empty Space
• How Does Sound Travel Science Project
• Why Is There No Sound In Outer Space
• Who Said The Atom Is Mostly Empty Space
• What To Do With Empty Space In Bathroom

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2024 eclipse one of many reasons flat Earth claims are nonsense | Fact check roundup

Tens of millions of Americans will watch as the moon passes between the sun and the Earth on April 8, completely blocking out daylight for minutes for those in the path of totality . The celestial show has launched a frenzy of paper glasses purchases and hotel reservations , and it serves as a perfect case-in-point for how scientists know the Earth, moon and sun move through space.

But it hasn't stopped some skeptics from continuing to believe the Earth is flat, a conspiracy theory experts say dangerously feeds into paranoia and spurs an unhealthy skepticism of all science and credible authorities.

The USA TODAY Fact-Check Team has debunked an array of flat Earth-related claims, including that Antarctica is really an ice wall around a flat Earth and the related conspiracy theory that space – and space travel – isn't real.

More: Surreal April 2024 total solar eclipse renews debunked flat Earth conspiracy theories

More : The 2024 total solar eclipse is in less than a week: How to get glasses; cloud forecast

The claim: NASA admits the Earth is flat and non-rotating

Our rating: False

NASA has consistently said the Earth is a round, rotating globe, and the documents referenced don't prove otherwise. The "flat, non-rotating earth" model is a common technique used to generalize mathematic equations, experts said.  Read more

More from the Fact-Check Team:  How we pick and research claims |  Email newsletter  |  Facebook page

The claim: Antarctica is an ice wall that surrounds the flat Earth

Antarctica is a continent in the Southern Hemisphere. Satellite data from NASA and independent companies shows the land mass as an island with a definitive end. Read more

The claim: Pictures show the Earth is flat, and sea levels haven’t changed

Scientists have ample evidence the Earth is curved, including images of the planet taken from outer space. And long-term tide gauge data shows that sea levels have risen in Sydney Harbor over the past century and continue to rise. Read more

The claim: Moon visible in the daytime proves Earth is flat

The Earth is not flat, it's spherical, as proven by photos from space and an array of observations and calculations that can be done from Earth. Planetary scientists say the visibility of the moon and sun during the daytime doesn't prove a flat Earth – it is in fact a reflection of the motion of the sun, moon and Earth in space, along with the Earth's rotation. The moon also does not emit its own light.  Read more

The claim: Radar technology wouldn’t work if the Earth was a globe

Scientists say that radar technologies account for the Earth’s curvature. Furthermore, the curvature of the Earth plays into some of the limitations of radar technology. An abundance of evidence demonstrates the Earth is spherical in shape – including images of the planet taken from outer space. Read more

The claim: Celestial navigation would be impossible if Earth is globe-shaped and orbits the sun

Celestial navigation is a technique still used to determine location based on the positions of celestial objects. Because the Earth and other celestial bodies are in motion, the apparent position of stars, planets and the sun in the sky changes. These changes must be taken into account for successful celestial navigation. Read more

The claim: Operation Highjump was a mission to find out what was beyond the 'ice wall' of Antarctica

Historical records show Operation Highjump was a naval operation conducted to establish a base in Antarctica. There is no evidence it was sent to investigate an "ice wall." There’s overwhelming evidence that Antarctica is a continent, not an ice wall. Read more

The claim: Post implies moon missions impossible because of Earth's atmospheric temperatures

Our rating: Missing context

The implied claim is wrong. Thermospheric temperatures do not melt spacecraft. While this layer of the atmosphere does technically reach the temperatures stated in the post, there are not enough air molecules in the thermosphere to transfer significant amounts of this heat to an object, according to researchers. Read more

The claim: Post implies Apollo missions didn't happen because lunar module can't travel between Earth and the moon

The implied claim is wrong. The Apollo 11 lunar module traveled through space after being propelled toward the moon by a powerful rocket. Astronauts made the journey in a different, attached module − called the command module. Astronauts only used the lunar module for transport between the moon and the orbiting command module. Read more

The claim: Post implies NASA space shuttle can't travel faster than jet due to its design

The implied claim is wrong. The NASA space shuttle travels much faster at top speeds than the SR-71. The space shuttle is launched with the aid of huge rocket boosters not shown in the photo and only reaches top speeds at elevations where there is virtually no air resistance. The SR-71 jet moves more slowly because it must reach its top speeds under its own power and against the friction of Earth's atmosphere. Read more

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What happens if it's cloudy for the April 8 solar eclipse?

Though everyone is hoping for clear skies, here's what might happen if an eclipse-chaser's worst enemy — clouds — decides to make an appearance.

If you cannot watch the eclipse in person or the weather is unfavorable, you can watch the total solar eclipse live here on Space.com . And keep up with all the actions with our total solar eclipse 2024 live updates blog.

It's now less than a week until the total solar eclipse on April 8 .

While many people will strive to be within the path of totality , where the moon's shadow completely blocks the sun's face. But even if you're within this path, it doesn't guarantee you'll have clear skies on eclipse day. 

So what happens if it's cloudy where you are on April 8? Will you notice anything as the moon's shadow sweeps over you?

That depends on how thick and how extensive the clouds are. Regardless, you will certainly notice some very unusual effects when the moon's shadow passes by. I have had the misfortune of being completely clouded out of two of the 13 total solar eclipses I have journeyed to, and in a third case, I managed to sneak in a view of the corona even though virtually the entire sky was clouded over. 

Related: How to give yourself the best chance of clear skies for April 8's solar eclipse

So, based on those three experiences, here is what you can expect to see if the weather does not work in your favor and you ultimately must utter those two words every eclipse chaser does not want to hear: "Clouded out!"

Passage of the moon's shadow

Available in a handy four-pack to kit out the whole family, these Celestron EclipSmart Solar Eclipse Glasses will keep you well protected while you view the eclipse. And don't miss our full guide to the best solar eclipse glasses and the best solar viewing kits to make the most of your experience.

Should there be considerable cloud cover on "E-Day," the clouds may actually have an advantage: They will provide a projection screen of sorts to view the rapid approach and departure of the moon's dark umbral shadow. Isabel Martin Lewis described the effect in her 1924 book "A Handbook of Solar Eclipses."

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"At the time of eclipse when the shadow of the moon sweeps over us we are brought into direct contact with a tangible presence from space beyond and we feel the immensity of forces over which we have no control," Lewis wrote. "The effect is awe-inspiring in the extreme. In fact, the passing of the moon's shadow, if one is fortunate to observe it, will be one of the most impressive features of the eclipse."

Mid-to-high-level clouds

If your sky is covered with mid-to-high-level clouds — cirrostratus, altostratus and/or cirrocumulus — you will likely be able to see the forward edge of the elliptical shadow move rapidly toward you and then over you just prior to and at the onset of totality. And with its passage may come a remarkable change in the overall quality of light on the surrounding landscape and a dramatic change in the clouds' color. 

On July 10, 1972, at my very first total solar eclipse , my family and I were located just outside Cap-Chat, Quebec, a sleepy Canadian community of 2,000 whose population swelled to nearly 30,000 on eclipse day. The eclipse began under bright sunshine, mixed with some wispy high clouds. But as more and more of the sun became covered, the high cloudiness quickly increased and began to lower so that, at the onset of totality, virtually the whole sky was covered by a swath of battleship-gray clouds. 

But upon the arrival of the moon's shadow, we saw its distinctly sharp edge move in. For those of a certain age who might remember the long-running television soap opera "The Edge of Night," whose opening showed an animation with a line of darkness sweeping over a city, that's exactly what I was reminded of as we were enveloped by the moon's umbral shadow. Once you actually experience it for yourself, it becomes easy to understand why this sight was so terrifying to ancient people. 

Along with the sudden darkness came a change in the clouds' color. Behind the forward-moving edge of the moon's shadow were strange and exotic colors. The dull gray suddenly became yellow-orange and tints you'd see while looking through a beer or iodine bottle. Indeed, along the very edge of the disappearing sun at the start and end of totality, an arc of ruby red or fuchsia associated with the solar chromosphere appeared. It looked bright red because the hydrogen in the sun was emitting a reddish light at high temperatures, and some of this light may become evident in the clouds at the beginning and end of totality.  

Some final comments regarding my 1972 eclipse experience. Despite the heavy cloud cover, we managed to catch sight of the totally eclipsed sun through a fortuitous opening in the overcast sky, some 30 seconds after totality began. As totality was ending, we saw the back edge of the shadow distinctly, projected on the clouds, racing away to the northeast. I remember my grandfather calling out to my grandmother, "Inez! Look, look! It's going that way." Meanwhile, my sister Lisa, taking this all in, said simply, "That was weird! " 

"Incredible sight!"

Interestingly, in March 1970, during special coverage of the total solar eclipse on CBS TV , correspondent Bill Plante (1938-2022) was stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, under cloudy skies. Yet he was quite attentive to the changes taking place as the lunar shadow swept in. 

"In the last 30 seconds we have witnessed the most incredible sight — in spite of the fact that we cannot see the sun — for it has become as dark as night!" he said. "The light has fallen so quickly, from an acceptable twilight or reading level or cloud-cover level, to virtual night. And just off to the north and to the east, beneath this layer of dark, dark sky, there is a lovely pink and orange horizon; an orange and gold color. We say again, it was just an incredible and fascinating phenomenon, to have the skies go so suddenly dark, in less than 30 seconds, and now we have this totality of an eclipse!"

It sounds like Plante was impressed, despite the clouds.

Just a few clouds  

Sometimes, you're lucky enough to get a mainly clear sky. But even then, unfortunately, one of the few clouds in the sky might happen to be in front of the sun during the total phase of the eclipse. 

That happened to me on Oct. 12, 1977, in Colombia, South America. During the 38-second interval of totality, a single rag of cloud drifted in front of the sun. Should something like that happen to you, the best you can do is look around the darkened sky for some of the brighter stars and planets and try to watch for the passage of the moon's shadow. 

As I noted in my personal journal later on, "When totality arrived, virtually the entire sky was clear and the seeing and transparency were close to excellent. We were able to easily see seven stars and were awed at third contact by the passage of the moon's umbral shadow cone retreating rapidly to the east. And in the east, part of a rainbow changed to all red just as totality began. 

"There was only one thing wrong: The sun was behind a cloud! It began encroaching upon the sun a few minutes before totality and left just a minute or two after the sun began to reappear. As if to rub salt into the wound, not another cloud interfered, even as the partially eclipsed sun set behind the Andes! For me, Colombia was Cap Chat in reverse. What goes around, comes around!"

For more on this misadventure, read my colleague Glenn Schneider's comments . 

Thick, low clouds 

Finally, there is the possibility that on eclipse day, your view will be covered by clouds at low altitudes, generally below 6,500 feet (1,980 meters). They tend to be thick, low, flat clouds that cover large areas and often bring precipitation. 

In December 2021, my wife Renate and I were on board an icebreaker, sailing off the coast of Antarctica, when we encountered the moon's shadow for a total eclipse lasting just over a minute and a half. Unfortunately, our skies were heavily overcast with low clouds and spotty, light precipitation. 

In such a situation, the effects of a total solar eclipse can best be described as being in a lighted room where someone turns a dimmer switch down and then turns it back up, causing the light to return. 

As I noted in my story for Space.com , "Totality lasted 97 seconds. No distinct shadow or cone of darkness was noted. Rather, just an amorphous darkening of the sky — like someone turning down a rheostat or dimmer switch. No colors were seen and the end of totality seemed more pronounced as the light seemed to come back quicker than it when it faded away. During totality, it actually began to drizzle very lightly and a few minutes after third contact it actually started to snow lightly. The air temperature hovered at around 0°C (32°F), but factoring in the winds made it feel noticeably colder."

Final thoughts 

I suppose Antarctica was the most disappointing of all my eclipse experiences; aside from getting dark and light again, there really wasn't much more to see. I hope everyone who positions themselves in the path of the moon's dark shadow will get a clear view of the April 8 eclipse. But as you can see, unless the clouds are low and thick with some rain or snow falling, the moon's shadow racing by and the eerie colors accompanying it should still make for quite a show!

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].

Joe Rao is Space.com's skywatching columnist, as well as a veteran meteorologist and eclipse chaser who also serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications. Joe is an 8-time Emmy-nominated meteorologist who served the Putnam Valley region of New York for over 21 years. You can find him on Twitter and YouTube tracking lunar and solar eclipses, meteor showers and more. To find out Joe's latest project, visit him on Twitter.

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Totality was a total bust for me — but not for the reason you may think

• FranRouse I was lucky enough to live downtown Charleston, S.C. in 2017 and witness the Total Solar Eclipse. It was a sight to see for sure and I hope to see this one. Only thing is now I live near Pittsburgh, Pa. and not in the direct path. And the weather is unpredictable this time of year with rain and still even snow possible. Ive seen a few eclipses in my lifetime and the one thing I want to stress is PLEASE WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!!!!!!! When I was younger and seen my first one as kids we thought we were invincible and well being Gen X our parents weren't always around and a lot of us didn't have a clue about not looking directly into the sun. And some of us have really bad eyesight and as we get even older it's failing rapidly. I made that mistake back then so my eyes aren't good anymore. In 2017 I wore protection and made sure all my family wore it to witness the Eclipse. And all of them will wear it if we get the chance to see it this time also. Reply
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