Skip to main content

Listen to the sound of a nebula with the space data sonification project

A Quick Look at Data Sonification: Stellar, Galactic, and Black Hole

When it comes to sharing information about distant space objects, the first thing that comes to mind for most people is the beautiful images captured by instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope. But space holds delights for the senses beyond sight, as a NASA project demonstrates. The data sonification project takes the signals picked up by an X-ray observatory and translates them into sounds for an auditory experience of astronomical data.

Recommended Videos

There are three new cosmic wonders whose data has been turned into audioscapes as part of the project: The Chandra Deep Field, the Cat’s Eye Nebula, and the Whirlpool galaxy. Each one has its own sound interpreted from data collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

First off, the Chandra Deep Field represents the hundreds of objects observed in the X-ray wavelength across the southern hemisphere. The data look like pinpoints of light which you might assume are stars, but are in fact distant black holes and galaxies. The pitch of each tone reflects the colors of the points, most of which are supermassive black holes, with red colors sounding lower and purple colors sounding higher.

Second up is the beautiful Cat’s Eye nebula. The visualization combines both X-ray data from Chandra and visual light data from Hubble. The nebula is giving off bubbles of energy over time, which are represented by a radar-like scan. The louder tones represent brighter light, and the pitch of the tones represents the distance of the light from the center of the nebula.

Finally, this clip represents the galaxy Messier 51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. This is another radar-style sonification, starting at the top of the image and moving radially. As the image includes different wavelengths of light like X-ray and ultraviolet, captured by different instruments, these wavelengths have been mapped to different frequencies and assigned to a melodic minor scale. The rising pitches represent the spiral arms of this galaxy, reaching out from its center, while the central core sounds like a continuous low hum.

You can listen to each of the audio clips and see more information about their sources on the Chandra X-ray Observatory website.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
2025 could be a big year in the endeavor to replace the space station
Vast Space's Haven-2 space station.

Vast Unveils Final Design for Haven-1, the World’s First Commercial Space Station

Humans have been living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since 2000, but like every piece of aging machinery, the orbital outpost has a limited lifespan.

Read more
SpaceX gets green light for seventh Starship test, but when is it?
The world's most powerful rocket on the launchpad.

SpaceX has moved a big step closer to the seventh test flight of its enormous Starship rocket after receiving clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) this week.

The FAA's award of a launch license follows recent testing by SpaceX of the engines on the Starship’s first-stage Super Heavy booster, and also on the upper-stage Starship spacecraft.

Read more
This is the coolest video you’ll see of a SpaceX Dragon capsule heading home
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is pictured approaching the space station above the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2023.

International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Don Pettit has shared an unusual video (below) showing the latest departure of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

In reality, it takes a considerable period of time for a spacecraft to edge away from the ISS at the end of a stay, and the real-time footage is often only of interest to hardcore space fans or lovers of slow TV.

Read more