The publication of the first photo of Sagittarius A* has become the big scientific news of the month of May. And possibly one of the most important of the year. And even of the decade! Thanks to the work of an international team of scientists over the years, we have been able to watch the black hole which is located in the center of our galaxy. And if that wasn’t already exciting enough, now we can also hear itThanks to the sonification performed by the Chandra X-ray Observatoryfrom NASA.
It should be noted that, in fact, we neither see nor hearyes The image taken by the consortium of the Event Horizon Telescope is the result of computer processing the radiation detected around the black hole as it gobbles up matter around it. As for sonification, it is a second processing step in which a greater volume is assigned to the areas with brightness louder and a higher sound frequency to the areas closest to the black hole.
It is not the first time that these scientists have performed the sonification of an astronomical image. They have also done it with the first black hole that was photographed, the M87*as well as with the Tycho supernova remnant or the Perseus cluster. In addition, other researchers have sonified other astronomical phenomena, such as the Martian sunrise, or even biological ones. This is the case of those who recently turned the patterns of a spider web into music. Even the first ones have become a melody! decimals of the number pi!
This is the sonification of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way
In this case, the scientists started from the image of the Sagittarius A* black hole posted in the last few days.
The entire photograph was divided like a clock face, so that the sonificationn started at twelve o’clock. Then, moving in a clockwise direction, the melodyso that the brightest areas were represented with Greater volume. In addition, the fastest moving regions closest to the black hole were assigned to higher sound frequencies.
On the other hand, according to explain those responsible for the sonification in a statementthe result “was processed in a special way to allow a listener to listen to the data in 3D stereo sound”. This means that “sounds appear to start straight ahead and then move clockwise to one ear and then the other as the sound is made.” swept”.
Just like the image, all this corresponds more to the matter in the event horizon than with the black hole itself. Nothing can escape black holes, not even light, so they are actually all darkness. What is represented is the event horizon, which corresponds to the region from which nothing can escape being engulfed. That matter spinning around the black hole just before it absorbs it is what we have been able to watch Y to listen.
And this is just the beginning. That’s two now, but thanks to techniques that are clearly being perfected we could soon have many more black hole pictures. And why not? Also a acoustic representation thereof.