TRAPPIST Sounds : TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System Translated Directly Into Music

We used a numerical simulation of TRAPPIST-1 to play a piano note every time a planet passes in front of the star (a 'transit') and a drum every time a faster inner planet overtakes its outer neighbour (a 'conjunction'). To assign pitches, we simply scaled up the orbital frequencies by 212 million times to bring them into the human hearing range. The TRAPPIST-1 system is a resonant chain which means that the periods of the planets' orbits are very close to whole number ratios (ex. 3:2, 4:3). This is exactly what makes two musical notes sound consonant when played together and as a result, TRAPPIST-1 creates a beautiful, but slightly twisted harmony. For the same reason, the transits and conjunctions occur in a steady, repeating pattern. The crackling sound heard towards the end is Kepler's K2 lightcurve data of the star's observed brightness sped up by many times.

Created by Matt Russo, Dan Tamayo and Andrew Santaguida 2017.

[SYSTEMSounds]

Learn about the deep connections between music and astronomy, and the story of how this video was made, in our TED Talk: plus much more space-music at system-sounds.com

[BigWhoopZH]

If I was in the planetary neighborhood I'd file a complaint for all that noise.

[Manuipe]

it goes from classic music all the way up to heavy metal.

[Thoran]

The last 30 or so seconds sound really cool. Now I'm wondering what our solar system sounds like.

[ronniet]

I like how it feels off tempo first but the more sounds you add it makes more sense.

[craigparrott]

This is AMAZING! I am using this with my 8th grade science class today to introduce their planetary music project. Each planet has a different diameter with will be used to determine a starting pitch. Each planet's orbital velocity will be used to calculate a tempo and groups will use each of these starting points to create their own collective musical composition. Of course, the pitch and tempo must be to scale with the actual astronomical measurements. Thanks for the inspiration!

[alikuyumculuk]

what is this, some kind of new radiohead album?

[wyattmay]

0:44 ~~ When you leave the car door open

[psykosmach]

Could you make like a 10 hours version of the end of the vidéo ? :-) I'm just fascinated by this ! It's so awesome ! And only last less than 1 minute :-)

[trueluscao]

Perfect buildup for a TRAPPIST-1 Anthem

[lenagangan]

should we address Trappist 1 for copyrights? :)) sounds amazing to me

[goodboi]

0:28 this part sounds aufully familiar

[sophiaadams]

I've watched this video so many times I feel like I'm 40000 of these 42000 views

[MCNarret]

Wow... you can hear the pattern, its not just random blips... I just imagine the formation of the system where amongst the chaos this resonance starts to pronounce and then you get what you have here today.

[myssmeow]

Ah.. I think I appreciate it a bit more on the second listen..
"we simply scaled up the orbital frequencies by 212 million times"
well.. that explains a few things :)

[clumma]

What's the margin of error on the orbital period measurements? These ratios are considerably worse than equal temperament. With a factor of ~ 200 million in there presumably there is some leeway...

[haghalam]

Very creepy and badass at the same time!

[crystina]

i love the idea, i love what it sounds like

[Ekevoo]

I'd love to hear that about our solar system

[adamgoodspeed]

So what does our Solar system sound like?