Sonification helps scientists uncover hidden details of the Universe that they might have missed.
The vast surrounding space around the Earth, called Universe, consists of stars, galaxies, planets comets and asteroids. But the void between these celestial objects is supposed to be silent. However, some objects of the Solar System emit a sound that is captured by tools deployed by space agencies like NASA. Through data sonification, the same digital data that gets translated into images is transformed into sound. NASA has compiled a bunch of sonifications into a playlist that has been uploaded on its website.
From Mercury to Jupiter, the playlist contains all the eerie sounds recorded by Hubble and other space tools.
It also has the sound of a supermassive black hole, humming in space 250 million light years away.
Scientists carry out this procedure of converting light into sound to uncover hidden details of the Universe that they might have missed.
For example, Mars doesn't have much of a magnetic field, but the playlist contains the haunting, lonely sounds of the Martian winds, as dust devils dance across the dusty surface.
Similarly, Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede have been recorded emitting plasma sounds that resemble robotic blips and bleeps.
Earth sounds a bit like birds, or whales. The sound of Saturn resembles a soundtrack from a sci-fi movie, as per the sonification playlist shared by NASA.
Explaining the process of converting digital data into sound, the US space agency said on its website that elements of the image, like brightness and position, are assigned pitches and volumes.
"No sound can travel in space, but sonifications provide a new way of experiencing and conceptualizing data. Sonifications allow the audience, including blind and visually impaired communities, to "listen" to astronomical images and explore their data," NASA said.
Scientists have been recording data since the launch of Sputnik in 1957. The radio waves picked up by the receivers of these space probes converted them back into sound.