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. The sequence represents optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. 

At this wavelength, the spiral arms are prominent, so the pitch creeps upward as the spiral stretches 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: Optical: NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith & Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/Kimberly Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo, Andrew Santaguida)

M51 Optical Light Sonification

Between Earth and the Sun, space is not truly empty but is filled with a soup of charged particles called plasma. This plasma comes from the Sun, pumped out in a steady stream called the solar wind and sporadically blasted away in explosive solar eruptions. When this solar plasma strikes Earth, it causes the magnetic field lines and plasma around Earth to vibrate like the plucked strings of a harp, producing ultralow-frequency waves.

In 2007, NASA launched five satellites to fly through Earth’s magnetic “harp” – its magnetosphere – as part of the THEMIS mission (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms). Since then, THEMIS has been gathering a bounty of information about plasma waves across Earth’s magnetosphere. 

The frequencies of the waves THEMIS measures are too low for our ears to hear, however. So a NASA citizen science project called HARP – or Heliophysics Audified: Resonances in Plasmas – has sped up the waves recorded by THEMIS to convert them to sound waves.

In this clip from June 10-11, 2009, whistle sounds are repeatedly heard over ambient background whooshes and crunches and a few high-pitch chirps. The whistles change in pitch as a THEMIS spacecraft moves toward and away from Earth on one orbit, with a maximum altitude of about 50,000 miles. These sounds are related to Earth’s magnetic harp, which has longer magnetic strings and lower pitches farther away from Earth. The high-pitch chirps are related to high-frequency plasma waves that are smaller than the harp waves yet can have an outsized impact on Earth’s radiation belts and space weather.

High-Pitch Chirps and Earth’s Magnetic Harp

Saturn is a source of intense radio emissions, which were monitored by our Cassini spacecraft. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet. These auroras are similar to Earth's northern and southern lights. This is an audio file of radio emissions from Saturn.

Cassini: Saturn Radio Emissions #1

To My Subscribers,

Thank you so much for your continued support over the years. It’s been a while, but I’ve finally completed a new album for my subscribers. I hope you enjoy it.

—

Butterfly Dreams

The title is inspired by Zhuangzi’s story The Butterfly Dream.

www.philosophy-foundation.org/enquiries/view/the-butterfly-dream

I interpret it as a reminder that what we perceive as reality is no different from a dream.

If that’s the case, then all we need to do is live each day with ease and peace of mind. In truth, there’s nothing to worry about—our own egos are what create those concerns. Let’s let go of those illusions, relax, and live lightly.

サブスクライバーの皆様へ。

長きにわたり、私をサポートしてくださり本当にありがとうございます。久しぶりになりますが、サブスクライバー用のアルバムが完成しました。楽しんでいただけたら幸いです。

------

Butterfly Dreams

タイトルは荘子の説話、「胡蝶の夢」から引用しました。

ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%83%A1%E8%9D%B6%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%A2

私たちが見ていると思っている現実も、夢と変わりはないという意味だと私は解釈しています。

もしそうであるなら、ただ毎日安心して気楽に生きればよいのです。本当は何一つ思い煩うことはないはずなのに、私たちの自我がそれをつくりだしているだけなのです。その幻影を振り払い、リラックスして軽く生きていきましょう。 

All tracks are produced by Hidekazu Imashige
Cover Photo by Hidekazu Imashige

Butterfly Dreams

帰路、ゆらり

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Izu Ambient 022

The light narrows into a single line, folding the day into its own shadow. Some feelings reject names, lingering like textures in the air. Time flows slower than the future it promises, while colors rise awake against the twilight. Between the mirror and the silence, thought burns briefly, with enough intensity to fade.

The Sky is Taped

3000

Aphex Twin - 21 Forgotten T

Georgy Om - Alpha Centauri

3rd track from the ep “Somnolent” by @Hilyard
https://open.spotify.com/album/7mtYE21I5eKozv4spdgauR
https://music.apple.com/us/album/somnolent/1484020783
https://hilyard.bandcamp.com/album/somnolent

Somnolent

Hilyard - Somnolent

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.

Chandra Deep Field Sonification

NASA

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