Homo Trypens said:Very nice!
I love the Perseus one. I think it really is a waveform (even an actual sound waveform, pressure waves in a gas) transposed into audible range without further alteration. So the timbre is actually from the data. Like, any frequency heard is present in the data at the same relative intensity, just 57 octaves lower.
In the M87 one, i'm near certain that they just used the data to generate MIDI (note data) that they then played familiar sounds with on some sort of sampler/synthesizer. So the melody and rhythm is from the data (quite possibly even quantized, ie. pressed into a 'musical' grid), and the timbres, the actual sounds, are a selection from earthly sound modules. Still cool, but M87 probably doesn't really sound like a synth violin
fink said:Cool sounds. I would love to know what a bass frequency 57 octaves down would feel like if it were possible.
MAGMA17 said:Beautiful and scary at the same time.
Makes me think of the "music of the spheres" concept
It would certainly be very satisfying for the categorization fetish of humans, to think that all of this could be explained by a single thing. But I have the feeling that it's not that simple :lol:fink said:One day someone will posit that these black hole subwoofers are responsible for the structure of space and time. If they have not already. Or perhaps I just did. Suddenly all the problems with explaining galaxy formation will vanish. No more dark matter. Only sound as an explanation.
fink said:Indeed with our current models and understanding sound cannot travel in space. But the vacuous nature is as you say, theoretical. In theory the spaces between the molecules that we call air are also vacuums. So far the furthest we have physically sent matter to barely passes the heliopause. At which point we were surprised to encounter a huge wall of plasma being displaced by Sol's magnetic field and solar wind.
We can say that we have detected pockets of vacuum but certainly not that the cosmos as a whole is devoid of matter or pressures. We have also never generated a 10 million year long wave to test in our little back yard of space. Who is to say that such extremes behave in the same way?
At present we can say for certain that the influence the solar system has on particles stretches a lot further away than previously expected. If we could consider Sol's bubble as a single entity, and all other entities the same, a grand scale view of the universe could show something similar to a child's ball pit with congestion of entities that make the idea of a vacuum seem very human scaled.
fink said:Not coming off flat at all Void. I appreciate the discussion. My wild speculation about the nature of the universe should always be taken with a pinch of salt. I have the benefit of a day off to muse these things today.
Now how can we lift your mood a little?
fink said:After a little research, it seems that some current thinking suggests that sound waves can travel through space. You cannot hear them without sufficient particles vibrating, but they can still travel. The wavelength denotes the gaps that can be crossed.
A 10 million year wavelength should be capable of bridging quite large gaps of nothing.
I'm all about the black hole subwoofer theory today!
Showing that sounds is predicated on both the medium in which it travels and having a receiver, ie, a being with at least one functional ear. This is why the answer to "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to here it, does it make a sound," is no [Berkeley].vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.
fink said:Right, so I will stop misnomering these waves as sound waves despite the fact that they theoretically are the same thing. But the same force that shapes a plate of loose sand on top of a speaker cone still could arrange whatever it bumps into after it crosses the vacuum of space. Especially at such a monstrously low wavelength.
These blackhole waves (gravitational waves) travelling at a fraction less than lightspeed through space at a frequency of 10 million years could assumedly bridge almost 10,000,000ly bumping from matter to matter.
The confusion I suppose is that we discuss them as sound as per the original article.
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. This new sonification – that is, the translation of astronomical data into sound...
DF0 said:Sound can also be recognised by its effect on the medium. In relatively dense media, sound propagates via what is effectively direct collisions between molecules. However, when looking at the movements of matter on cosmic scales, besides radiation pressure the major candidate for an excitation force would be gravity. Gravitational vibrations would give an apparent effect on the particles of the medium - which in this case might be stars and dust clouds - which would be qualitatively similar to the vibrations of atoms and molecules that propagate sound as we understand it here on earth. Given that that galaxies and galactic clusters are arranged huge sheets and ropes, it seems likely that these are vibrating like vast drums and stringed instruments. And these vibrations contribute towards shepherding dust and gas into clouds which eventually collapse to ignite new stars....