Sonification of a Hubble Deep Space Image

Space becomes “sonified” in this visualization of a cluster of galaxies imaged by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Time flows left to right, and the frequency of sound changes from bottom to top, ranging from 30 to 1,000 hertz. Objects near the bottom of the image produce lower notes, while those near the top produce higher ones. Most of the visible specks are galaxies housing countless stars. A few individual stars shine brightly in the foreground. Stars and compact galaxies create short, clear tones, while sprawling spiral galaxies emit longer notes that change pitch. The higher density of galaxies near the center of the image — the heart of this galaxy cluster, known as RXC J0142.9+4438 — results in a swell of mid-range tones halfway through the video. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 acquired this image on Aug. 13, 2018.

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Credit: NASA/Hubble/SYSTEM Sounds (Matt Russo/Andrew Santaguida)

[abdulplayer]

Thats literally my math teacher explaining complicated concepts to our class.

[adelinojosesoaresdemello]

I was born in 1931 when we believed the Milky Way was the only existing galaxy. My father was the Astronomy Professor at a Navy Academy and used to teach me a couple of things about space. Haven't we changed a lot of what we thought we knew? Among others, of course, thanks a lot to you NASA. Keep up the good work

[swisstraeng]

Explaination for all of those who don't understand that.
The sound you hear here, is not recorded. It is made by a computer, and simply reads from left to right.
The higher a star is on the picture, the higher the pitch you will hear. The bigger, the louder the pitch.
The white line goes from left to right, and plays sounds as it goes over a star.
For any more precise question, READ THE GODDAMN DESCRIPTION.

[watsontcbc]

Wow, the guys that did the soundtrack for “Forbidden Planet” in 1956 actually got it almost right.

[arvidvanthorre]

its nice that the sounds moves when you having headphones on

[AngryKirC]

For those who are interested in the concept: check out ANS, a Soviet synthesizer made in 1958 that used a very similar approach to generate sounds from a picture/plotted plane

[TasmanianSon]

This is beautiful. It reminds me of the theme music from the 1956 sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet".

[jean-christophehoule]

Idk who took over NASA marketing department but they are doing a heck of a job !!!

[alanduran]

*Echoing spacey sounds*


Love the Closed Captions!

[DamianReloaded]

Cool! A circle expanding from the center could be interesting too! ^_^

[creatspirit]

This reminds me of some sStarcraft backgroundmusic. Now I know where that sound came from.
It was from out of space!
Great sonification.

[Jonc]

This reminds me of that episode of soongebob where squidward froze and woke up in the future

[wipeout]

The universe seems to have a heavy Aphex Twin influence.

[ByZaMo]

Reminds me of the Terran briefing room from Starcraft.

[sandrapanico]

That’s really cool. Symphony of the stars. Literally.😀

[gregorypapi]

How long before anyone use this as an intro in their next EP

[mace_]

WOW ! So you basically transformed vibrations of stars and other things into sound ? That's cool

[angelapinedo]

I'd like this longer. It would be great to fall asleep too

[robertsmithshair]

I love that it sounds like every old sci-fi B Movie 👽👽👽

[fuzzcous]

It cool how much this resembles what you would hear in old sci-fi movies.