No one can hear your scream in space.
Or can they?
Let’s look at ten of the scariest sounds ever detected in space.
Number ten, music of a pulsar.
When large stars die, they can form a rapidly spinning, ULTRA-dense object called a neutron
star.
Some of these neutron stars become highly magnetized and spin at mind-boggling speeds
completing at least twenty rotations every second becoming what is known as a PULSAR.
Astronomers have now been able to record the signals being emitted by these powerful objects
and shared the audio with everyone to hear.
Imagine an object with five hundred thousand times the mass of the Earth spinning at unbelievable
speeds sending out this sound as they whizz through space.
Number nine, radio signals from intelligent life?
In a galaxy roughly a billion light years away from our own, astronomers have detected
a bizarre, heartbeat-like radio signal being emitted.
The source of this odd and persistent signal has been confounding astronomers since its
discovery.
Ordinarily, signals like this last only a few milliseconds but this new signal is lasting
an average of one thousand times longer and astronomers have no idea what could have generated
this although some cosmic events have been proposed as its source.
But others believe it comes from something other than a natural process.
Could this new signal have a more intelligent or extraterrestrial source?
Cannot find a sound clip for this, the story is only 2 months old, the sound lasted for
three seconds and was described as a heartbeat with peaks every few fractions of a second,
maybe just find a fast heartbeat sound for this?
Number eight, the frightening sounds of space travel.
Imagine you are traveling through our solar system bound for one of the outer planets
traveling THOUSANDS of miles an hour through dark, cold space.
Now imagine you are laying down to sleep when the eerie silence of space is interrupted
by this sound.
You might think that something is trying to make its way INTO your spaceship, but don’t
worry.
This sound is just the passing dust of a comet striking the outer hull.
While there is nothing to be frightened of here, it wouldn’t be a fun experience to
hear that for yourself.
Number seven, the songs of a quasar.
One of the most brilliant and wondrous objects in the cosmos are quasars.
A quasar is an extremely luminous nucleus in the center of a galaxy that is powered
by supermassive black holes.
The surrounding accretion disc feeds MASSIVE jets of matter and energy hurtling out of
the black hole’s poles creating a quasar.
Now astronomers have been able to record what a quasar sounds like based on what it is emitting.
While the power from the quasar creates a lot of radiation and noise, the hissing noise
heard dominating the recording is due to the movement of gas that is VERY close to the
event horizon while.
Can this sound allow us to learn more about the properties of black holes and what causes
them to become quasars?
Number six, Voyager 1 picks up a strange sound.
The Voyager missions are one of humanity's GREATEST space achievements to date, although
they were launched in nineteen seventy-seven they are STILL sending back new data and information
that are changing astronomers' view of the universe.
Recently Voyager One passed through the outer barrier of our solar system fourteen BILLION
miles away and frightened scientists with a sound it picked up in interstellar space.
It turns out that there IS enough matter in some interstellar space for sound waves to
travel.
This eerie and unsettling hum is thought to be caused by the ionized gas that lies in
the vast empty spaces between star systems but it will be a while before scientists can
fully investigate it.
Number five, the hum of the Cat’s Eye Nebula
Nebulae are found throughout the Milky Way and the universe as a whole, MANY stars will
leave behind some form of a nebula when they eventually die.
Now thanks to Australian astronomers, we can listen to what one of the most famous nebulae,
the Cat’s Eye Nebula, would sound like.
From the radio signals it emits over three thousand two hundred light years away, they
were able to put together this clip giving us a glimpse at what we may hear throughout
the cosmos.
Reminiscent of some type of gong, this sound from the nebula doesn’t ever seem to let
up.
Imagine the nightmare of traveling through this eerie, persistent hum.
Number four, the cries of a black hole.
Black holes are GIGANTIC gravitational monsters that generate so much force that they send
pressure waves emanating out traveling through the fabric of spacetime.
NASA astronomers turned toward the black hole in the center of the Perseus galaxy in order
to record these pressure waves into audible notes for us to hear.
The sound ways were picked up towards the outer radius of the galaxy and were scaled
up into an audible pitch.
For the first time in history, we are able to listen to a black hole cry in the depths
of space.
Number three, the sound of a stellar nursery.
The stars that light up our night sky and the sun that warms our planet are thought
to form when gravity takes over in MASSIVE clouds of dust and gas.
These stellar nurseries dot the sky, often within the large nebulae found throughout
the galaxy.
Thanks to Walker Dufour, we are able to hear the radio signals emitted from ONE of the
birthplaces of stars within the Milky Way.
The sound is almost ethereal, reminiscent of the singing bowls used in Tibet, India,
and Nepal.
Astronomers are now trying to understand what process is producing this sound.
Number two, the supernova remnant of the Veil Nebula.
In the year two thousand, an astronomer in Italy recorded data from the WISPY star remnant
known as the Veil Nebula.
This nebula sits only twenty-four hundred light years away and scientists have been
able to calculate that its star must have gone supernova at least ten thousand years
ago.
The mixture of hot gas and dust that make up this structure is emitting this spooky
note that reverberates into the greater galaxy.
Astronomers are STILL trying to understand what exactly in the nebula is creating these
signals and who knows what they will find when they finally uncover the source.
Number one, the sound of the ancient cosmos.
Did you know that the universe has its own background sound?
In twenty thirteen, the Planck Space Telescope picked up a tone that astronomers figured
out was primordial sound waves from the very early universe.
This “Planck Sound” is the oldest known sound in existence in our universe and is
the reverberation of the time immediately following the Big Bang.
Long before there were any stars, galaxies, or planets around thirteen point eight billion
years ago, the universe was just a HOT ball of plasma made up of electrons, protons, and
photons.
During this infant stage of the universe, sound waves triggered by minuscule quantum
fluctuations RIPPLED through the universe.
These same sound waves can still be detected throughout the universe giving us a glimpse
at what the cosmos were like in the MOMENTS after the Big Bang.
Outro
Thanks for watching!
How would you feel if you heard one of these sounds while traveling through the cosmos?
Be sure to join us next time, on Matter!