NASA

There’s a new, immersive way to explore some of the first full-color infrared images and data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – through sound. 

Listeners can enter the complex soundscape of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, explore the contrasting tones of two images that depict the Southern Ring Nebula, and identify the individual data points in a transmission spectrum of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. 
 
A team of scientists, musicians, and a member of the blind and visually impaired community worked to adapt Webb’s data. These audio tracks support blind and low-vision listeners first, but are designed to be captivating to anyone who tunes in.

Translating Webb Data Into Sound

NASA Sonification

NASA sonifications

New & hot: Science

Science

Blazars are galaxies whose central supermassive black hole, weighing millions to billions of times our Sun’s mass, blasts a particle jet almost directly toward us at nearly the speed of light.

This track sonifies a decade of gamma rays from the blazar TXS 0506+056 detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope between August 2008 and May 2018. The percussive sounds match the energy of the detected gamma rays. Unprecedented flaring activity began in April 2017 and continued for months. On Sept. 22, 2017, an observatory at the South Pole detected a high-energy neutrino thought to have originated from the blazar. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration., Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida/SYSTEM Sounds

Blazar Flare Sonification

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

The core of our Milky Way galaxy is densely packed with gas, dust, stars, and stellar remnants, but its centerpiece is a monster black hole with a mass of 4 million Suns called Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A-star”).

This sonification tracks an image of the galactic center captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope in X-ray, optical, and infrared light, respectively. A different instrument represents each observatory, with a xylophone for Chandra, a violin for Hubble and a soft piano for Spitzer. The translation begins on the left side of the image and moves to the right, with sounds representing the positions and brightness of the sources. The light of objects located toward the top of the image have higher pitch, while the intensity of the light controls the volume. Stars and compact sources emerge as individual notes, while extended clouds of gas and dust produce an evolving drone. A crescendo happens in the brightest region of the image, where the supermassive black hole resides. The Hubble image outlines energetic regions where stars are being born, while Spitzer’s infrared data show glowing clouds of dust containing complex structures. X-rays from Chandra reveal gas heated to millions of degrees from stellar explosions and outflows from Sagittarius A*. 

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; IR: Spitzer NASA/JPL-Caltech; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/Kimberly Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo, Andrew Santaguida)

Galactic Center Sonification

Since 2003, the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster has been associated with sound. This is because astronomers discovered that pressure waves sent out by the black hole caused ripples in the cluster’s hot gas that could be translated into a note — one that humans cannot hear some 57 octaves below middle C. Now a new sonification brings more notes to this black hole sound machine. A new sonification — that is, the translation of astronomical data into sound — is being released in time for NASA’s Black Hole Week this year.

In some ways, this sonification is unlike any other done before because it revisits the actual sound waves discovered in data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The popular misconception that there is no sound in space originates with the fact that most of space is essentially a vacuum, providing no medium for sound waves to propagate through. A galaxy cluster, on the other hand, has copious amounts of gas that envelops the hundreds or even thousands of galaxies within it, providing an avenue for the sound waves to travel.

In this new sonification of Perseus, the sound waves that were previously identified were extracted and made audible for the first time. The sound waves were extracted in radial directions, that is, outwards from the center. The signals were then resynthesized into the range of human hearing by scaling them upward by 57 and 58 octaves above their true pitch. Another way to put this is that they are being heard 144 and 288 quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) times higher than their original frequency. The radar-like scan around the image allows you to hear waves emitted in different directions. In the visual image of these data, blue and purple both show X-ray data captured by Chandra.

Learn more: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2022/sonify5/ 

Sonification Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

Black Hole Sonification: Perseus

Studied by scientists for decades, the black hole in Messier 87, or M87, gained celebrity status in science after the first release from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project in 2019. This new sonification does not feature the EHT data, but rather looks at data from other telescopes that observed M87 on much wider scales at roughly the same time. The image in visual form contains three panels that are, from top to bottom, X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, optical light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and radio waves from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile. The sonification scans across the three-tiered image from left to right, with each wavelength mapped to a different range of audible tones. Radio waves are mapped to lowest tones, optical data to medium tones, and X-rays detected by Chandra to the highest tones. The brightest part of the image corresponds to the loudest portion of the sonification, which is where astronomers find the 6.5 billion solar mass black hole that EHT imaged.

Learn more: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2022/sonify5/ 

Sonification Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

Black Hole Sonification: M87

A series of relatively cloud-free images over Northwest Australia was captured by the Visual Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), from August 1-31, 2016. The music you hear directly represents the day-to-day variations in the intensity of 5 visible-range spectral reflectance (Rrs) channels, extracted from a specific location (-13.359o, 120.984o) over the course of this time series.
  
Credit: Image from VIIRS, onboard Suomi-NPP satellite. Sonification: Jon Vandermeulen and Ryan Vandermeulen. Image credit: Ryan Vandermeulen.

Indian Ocean Sonification

A near-infrared image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, captured by NASA’s Webb Telescope, has been mapped to a symphony of sounds. Musicians assigned unique notes to the semi-transparent, gauzy regions and very dense areas of gas and dust in the nebula, culminating in a buzzing soundscape. 

The sonification scans the image from left to right. The soundtrack is vibrant and full, representing the detail in this gigantic, gaseous cavity that has the appearance of a mountain range. The gas and dust in the top half of the image are represented in blue hues and windy, drone-like sounds. The bottom half of the image, represented in ruddy shades of orange and red, has a clearer, more melodic composition.
 
Brighter light in the image is louder. The vertical position of light also dictates the frequency of sound. For example, bright light near the top of the image sounds loud and high, but bright light near the middle is loud and lower pitched. Dimmer, dust-obscured areas that appear lower in the image are represented by lower frequencies and clearer, undistorted notes.

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 Cosmic Cliffs Sonification

A near-infrared image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, captured by NASA’s Webb Telescope, has been mapped to a symphony of sounds. This track includes sounds from just the top half of the image, which resembles a dark blue night sky. The gas and dust that are represented in blue hues have been translated to windy, drone-like sounds. The sonification scans the image from left to right.
 
This sonification does not represent sounds recorded in space. Two musicians mapped the telescope’s data to sound, carefully composing music to accurately represent details the team would like listeners to focus on. In a way, this sonification is like modern dance or an impressionist painting – it converts Webb’s image to a new medium to engage and inspire listeners.

Brighter light in the image is louder. The vertical position of light also dictates the frequency of sound. For example, bright light near the top of the image sounds loud and high, but bright light near the bottom is loud and lower pitched.

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 Cosmic Cliffs Sonification: Sky

A near-infrared image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, captured by NASA’s Webb Telescope, has been mapped to a symphony of sounds. This track only includes sounds from the bottom half of the image, which resembles a mountain range in ruddy shades of orange and red. This half of the image has a clearer, more melodic composition. The sonification scans the image from left to right.
 
This sonification does not represent sounds recorded in space. Two musicians mapped the telescope’s data to sound, carefully composing music to accurately represent details the team would like listeners to focus on. In a way, this sonification is like modern dance or an impressionist painting – it converts Webb’s image to a new medium to engage and inspire listeners.

Brighter light in the image is louder. The vertical position of light also dictates the frequency of sound. For example, bright light near the top of the image sounds loud and high, but bright light near the bottom is loud and lower pitched.
 
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 Cosmic Cliffs Sonification: Mountains

A near-infrared image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, captured by NASA’s Webb Telescope, has been mapped to a symphony of sounds. This track only plays the notes that represent stars in the image. All stars are represented by a combination of pitches and processed piano notes, but the brightest stars with longer diffraction spikes also carry crashes and clangs from cymbals. The sonification scans the image from left to right.
 
This sonification does not represent sounds recorded in space. Two musicians mapped the telescope’s data to sound, carefully composing music to accurately represent details the team would like listeners to focus on. In a way, this sonification is like modern dance or an impressionist painting – it converts Webb’s image to a new medium to engage and inspire listeners.

Brighter light in the image is louder. The vertical position of light also dictates the frequency of sound. For example, bright light near the top of the image sounds loud and high, but bright light near the bottom is loud and lower pitched.
 
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 Cosmic Cliffs Sonification: Stars

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

NASA’s Webb Telescope uncovered two views of the Southern Ring Nebula – one in near-infrared light and one in mid-infrared light. The colors in the images were mapped to pitches of sound – frequencies of light converted directly to frequencies of sound. This track only includes sounds from the near-infrared view. Near-infrared light is represented here by a higher range of frequencies than mid-infrared light. There are two stars in the center of this planetary nebula. In the near-infrared, only one star is heard clearly, with a louder clang.  
 
This sonification does not represent sounds recorded in space. Two musicians mapped the telescope’s data to sound, carefully composing music that represents near- and mid-infrared light, specifically to hear their contrasts. In a way, this sonification is like modern dance or an abstract painting – it converts Webb’s images into a new medium to engage and inspire listeners.
 
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: Near-Infrared

NASA’s Webb Telescope uncovered two views of the Southern Ring Nebula – one in near-infrared light and one in mid-infrared light. The colors in the images were mapped to pitches of sound – frequencies of light converted directly to frequencies of sound. 

This track only includes sounds from the mid-infrared view. Mid-infrared light is represented by lower notes overall to reflect that mid-infrared includes longer wavelengths of light. There are two stars in the center of this planetary nebula. 

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.
 
This sonification does not represent sounds recorded in space. Two musicians mapped the telescope’s data to sound, carefully composing music that represents near- and mid-infrared light, specifically to hear their contrasts. In a way, this sonification is like modern dance or an abstract painting – it converts Webb’s images into a new medium to engage and inspire listeners.
 
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: Mid-Infrared

NASA’s Webb Telescope observed the atmospheric characteristics of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b – which contains clear signatures of water – and the resulting transmission spectrum’s individual data points were translated into sound.
 
The sonification scans the spectrum from left to right. From bottom to top, the y-axis ranges from less to more light blocked. The x-axis ranges from 0.6 microns on the left to 2.8 microns on the right. The pitches of each data point correspond to the frequencies of light each point represents. Longer wavelengths of light have lower frequencies and are heard as lower pitches. The volume indicates the amount of light detected in each data point. 
 
The four water signatures are represented by the sound of water droplets falling. These sounds simplify the data – water is detected as a signature that has multiple data points. The sounds align only to the highest points in the data.
 
Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-webb-s-first-full-color-images-data-are-set-to-sound

Credits: Image: 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 Exoplanet WASP-96 b Sonification

NASA’s InSight lander brought a seismometer to the Red Planet to study “marsquakes.” On Sept, 5, 2021, the seismometer detected a meteoroid impacting the planet’s surface, creating several craters in the process.
It was the first time the sound of a meteoroid impact was captured occurring on another planet, and it might not be what you expect. In the audio, you hear three “bloops” representing distinct moments of the impact: the meteoroid entering Mars’ atmosphere, exploding into pieces, and striking the ground. The peculiar sound is caused by an atmospheric effect that’s also been observed in deserts on Earth, where lower-pitched sounds arrive before high-pitched sounds.
Credit: CNES/IPGP

InSight Captures Sound of a Meteoroid Striking Mars

Solfeggio frequencies recorded on the morning of the winter solstice copyright Tai Inoue at Nature Sounds 2011 

Windy Winter Solstice - Lakefield National Park, Cape York

The arrival of a thunderstorm at the edge of a meadow in upstate New York. A light rain falls and thunder rumbles as the storm moves by. Two Snowy Tree Crickets call from nearby shrubs, their repeated trills given in almost perfect unison. How relaxing, but beware … this soundscape may put you right to sleep.

Recorded binaurally at 11pm, 21 September, 2011. Connecticut Hill Wildlife Mangement Area near Ithaca, New York.

Thunder Crickets

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.