This track sonifies the Chandra Deep Field South, the deepest X-ray exposure ever made, comprising over 81 days of observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. 

Moving from bottom to top, the colors in the image determine the tones played. More specifically, colors toward the red end of the rainbow rumble as lower tones, while colors containing more purple play as higher ones. White areas in the image are heard as white noise. Almost all of the sources represented in the image are black holes or galaxies. Most of the former are supermassive black holes that reside at the centers of galaxies. The wide range of musical frequencies represents the full range of X-ray colors collected by Chandra from this region. Note that as the piece scans upward, the stereo position of the sounds provides clues about the position of the sources from left to right. 

Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/B.Luo et al.; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/Kimberly Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo, Andrew Santaguida)

Chandra Deep Field Sonification

Messier 51 (M51) is perhaps better known by its nickname, the Whirlpool Galaxy because its face-on orientation to us highlights its winding spiral arms. This gives our telescopes a different perspective on a spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way, whose structure we cannot observe directly since we’re inside it. The sonification tracks along a line emanating from the galaxy's core to the edge of the image and scanning clockwise. 

The light encountered by this line has been mapped to the notes of a melodic minor scale. Each of the four types of light captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Galaxy Evolution Explorer, and Chandra X-ray Observatory has their own unique frequency range. At wavelengths where the spiral arms are prominent, the pitch creeps upward as the spiral extends farther from the core. The bright core, which harbors a supermassive black hole, produces a constant low hum punctuated by short sounds from compact bright sources within the galaxy. 

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wesleyan Univ./R.Kilgard et al; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith & Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Univ. of AZ/R. Kennicutt; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/Kimberly Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo, Andrew Santaguida)

M51 Sonification

Messier 51 (M51) is perhaps better known by its nickname, the Whirlpool Galaxy, because its face-on orientation to us highlights its winding spiral arms. This gives our telescopes a different perspective on a spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way, whose structure we cannot observe directly since we’re inside it. The sonification tracks along a line emanating from the galaxy's core to the edge of the image and scanning clockwise. The light encountered by this line has been mapped to the notes of a melodic minor scale. The sequence represents ultraviolet data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. 

The bright core, which harbors a supermassive black hole, produces a constant low hum punctuated by short sounds from compact bright sources within the galaxy. 

Credit: UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/Kimberly Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo, Andrew Santaguida)

M51 Ultraviolet Sonification

The joint ESA/Jaxa BepiColombo mission flew past Mercury for the first time on 1 October 2021, capturing data with the magnetometer onboard ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter. A sonification of the magnetic field data is presented here.  
 
Two synthesizers can be heard, which are controlled by three characteristics of the magnetic field. The first synthesizer's pitch represents the slowly changing magnitude of the background magnetic field. First the solar wind is heard, then the increase and decrease of the planetary magnetic field, and then the solar wind again. The lower the pitch, the more intense the magnetic field. 
 
The pitch of the second synthesizer is controlled by the variations of the magnetic field magnitude. A more turbulent magnetic field is represented by a faster change in pitch. The magnetosheath crossing after closest approach is very prominent. 
 
Using the amplitude envelope as a control for the volume of the second synthesizer emphasises the different magnetospheric regions.
 
Full story 
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo/BepiColombo_s_first_tastes_of_Mercury_science

Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MPO-MAG/IGEP-IWF-IC-ISAS

Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Sound of the solar wind at Mercury

NASA’s Webb Telescope uncovered two views of the Southern Ring Nebula – in near-infrared light (at left in the track image) and mid-infrared light (at right in the track image) – and each has been adapted to sound.

In this sonification, the colors in the images were mapped to pitches of sound – frequencies of light converted directly to frequencies of sound. Near-infrared light is represented by a higher range of frequencies at the beginning of the track. Mid-way through, the notes change, becoming lower overall to reflect that mid-infrared includes longer wavelengths of light.
 
Listen carefully at 15 seconds and 44 seconds. These notes align with the centers of the near- and mid-infrared images, where the stars at the center of the “action” appear. In the near-infrared image that begins the track, only one star is heard clearly, with a louder clang. 

In the second half of the track, listeners will hear a low note just before a higher note, which denotes that two stars were detected in mid-infrared light. The lower note represents the redder star that created this nebula, and the second is the star that appears brighter and larger.
 
Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-webb-s-first-full-color-images-data-are-set-to-sound

Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI; Accessibility Production: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and Kimberly Arcand (CXC/SAO), Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds), Quyen Hart (STScI), Claire Blome (STScI), and Christine Malec (consultant).

Webb’s Southern Ring Nebula Sonification

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One year and three trips around the Sun later, NASA's Parker Solar Probe heard some weird, sci-fi sounds from plasma within the solar wind -- and those sounds may answer unanswered questions about how the wind forms.

Parker Solar Probe - Whistler Mode Waves 2

Parker Solar Probe - Whistler Mode Waves 1

Parker Solar Probe - Dust Impacts

Original space audio recordings provided courtesy of NASA and The University of Iowa. https://space-audio.org/

Voyager 1: Plasma Waves of the Bow Shock of Jupiter

Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand, M. Russo & A. Santaguida

Chandra X-ray Observatory: M16 Xray

Hello, we’re NASA. You may have seen our astronauts, rocket launches, or Mars rovers — but have you heard our sounds? From interviews with astronauts and engineers to stories that take you on a tour of the galaxy, NASA’s audio offerings let you experience the thrill of space exploration without ever leaving Earth.