Nasa reveals ‘haunting recordings’ from Solar System that sound like ‘shrieks and cries’ in supposedly silent void
NASA has compiled the ‘sinister’ sounds of space in a comprehensive playlist on its website.
The recently uploaded playlist features dozens of clips gathered from different parts of our solar system.
For example, listeners can check out sounds from Nasa’s Juno Mission as it flew by Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Another impressive sound clip is a sonification from the Cat’s Eye nebula, located 3,262 light years from Earth.
Sonification describes when space sounds are mixed with other data and amplified.
Each clip ranges in length from around 20 seconds to nearly a minute long.
“You’ve heard the creaks, cracks, and cackling noises of our universe before,” Nasa writes.
“Using data from our spacecraft, our scientists gathered new sinister sounds from the depths of space in time for Halloween,” it continued.
“Listen to our playlist filled with new ‘moans’ and ‘whistles’ from our universe that would scare the most ghoulish of creatures.”
The intergalactic sounds can be heard on Nasa’s SoundCloud account here or on its website here.
SOUND IN SPACE
When asked, most people would say there is no sound in space because sound waves can’t travel in a vacuum-like setting.
However, in the right conditions, sound can be heard in space, Nasa has revealed in the past.
“The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel,” the agency tweeted in 2022 when sharing sounds heard from a black hole.
“A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we’ve picked up actual sound,” it added.
In the past, scientists have also revealed just how loud the sounds of the Sun are.
Should the Sun’s soundwaves propagate through space, its solar surface noise would be approximately 100dB by the time it reaches Earth, per the American Academy of Audiology.
This translates to tens of thousands of watts of sound energy generated per meter on the Sun.