Images by Date
Images by Category
Solar System
Stars
Exoplanets
White Dwarfs
Supernovas
Neutron Stars
Black Holes
Milky Way Galaxy
Normal Galaxies
Quasars
Galaxy Clusters
Cosmology/Deep Field
Miscellaneous
Images by Interest
Space Scoop for Kids
Multiwavelength
Sky Map
Constellations
Photo Blog
Top Rated Images
Image Handouts
Desktops
Fits Files
Visual descriptions
Image Tutorials
Photo Album Tutorial
False Color
Cosmic Distance
Look-Back Time
Scale & Distance
Angular Measurement
Images & Processing
AVM/Metadata
Image Use Policy
Web Shortcuts
Chandra Blog
RSS Feed
Image Use Policy
Questions & Answers
Glossary of Terms
NASA Telescopes Tune Into a Black Hole Prelude, Fugue
Visual Description:

  • Three new sonifications — each with a connection to black holes — have been released using data from NASA’s Chandra, Webb, IXPE, and other telescopes.

  • WR124 is an extremely bright, short-lived massive star known as a Wolf-Rayet that may collapse into a black hole in the future.

  • SS 433 is a binary, or double, system containing a star like our Sun in orbit with either a neutron star or a black hole.

  • Centaurus A has an enormous black hole in its center that is sending a booming jet across the entire length of the galaxy.

NASA released three new pieces of cosmic sound Thursday that are associated with the densest and darkest members of our universe: black holes. These scientific productions are sonifications — or translations into sound — of data collected by NASA telescopes in space including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, James Webb Space Telescope, and Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE).

This new trio of sonifications represents different aspects of black holes. Black holes are neither static nor monolithic. They evolve over time, and are found in a range of sizes and environments.

WR 124 (above)

The first movement is a prelude to the potential birth of a black hole. WR124 is an extremely bright, short-lived massive star known as a Wolf-Rayet at a distance of about 28,000 light-years from Earth. These stars fling their outer layers out into space, creating spectacular arrangements seen in an image in infrared light from the Webb telescope. In the sonification of WR124, this nebula is heard as flutes and the background stars as bells. At the center of WR124, where the scan begins before moving outward, is a hot core of the star that may explode as a supernova and potentially collapse and leave behind a black hole in its wake. As the scan moves from the center outward, X-ray sources detected by Chandra are translated into harp sounds. Data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is heard as metallic bell-like sounds, while the light of the central star is mapped to produce the descending scream-like sound at the beginning. The piece is rounded out by strings playing additional data from the infrared telescopic trio of ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Herschel Space Telescope, NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, and NASA’s retired Wide Image Survey Explorer (WISE) as chords.

SS 433:

In the second movement of this black hole composition, listeners can explore a duet. SS 433 is a binary, or double, system about 18,000 light-years away that sings out in X-rays. The two members of SS 433 include a star like our Sun in orbit around a much heavier partner, either a neutron star or a black hole. This orbital dance causes undulations in X-rays that Chandra, IXPE, and ESA’s XMM-Newton telescopes are tuned into. These X-ray notes have been combined with radio and infrared data to provide a backdrop for this celestial waltz. The nebula in radio waves resembles a drifting manatee, and the scan sweeps across from right to left. Light towards the top of the image is mapped to higher-pitch sound, with radio, infrared, and X-ray light mapped to low, medium, and high pitch ranges. Bright background stars are played as water-drop sounds, and the location of the binary system is heard as a plucked sound, pulsing to match the fluctuations due to the orbital dance.

Centaurus A:

The third and final movement of the black hole-themed sonifications crescendos with a distant galaxy known as Centaurus A, about 12 million light-years away from Earth. At the center of Centaurus A is an enormous black hole that is sending a booming jet across the entire length of the galaxy. Sweeping around clockwise from the top of the image, the scan encounters Chandra’s X-rays and plays them as single-note wind chimes. X-ray light from IXPE is heard as a continuous range of frequencies, producing a wind-like sound. Visible light data from the European Southern Observatory’s MPG telescope shows the galaxy’s stars that are mapped to string instruments including foreground and background objects as plucked strings.

For more NASA sonifications and information about the project, visit https://chandra.si.edu/sound/

These sonifications were led by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC), with support from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA's Universe of Learning program, which is part of the NASA Science Activation program. The collaboration was driven by visualization scientist Kimberly Arcand (CXC), astrophysicist Matt Russo, and musician Andrew Santaguida (both of the SYSTEM Sounds project), along with consultant Christine Malec.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. NASA's Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The agency’s IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. The IXPE mission is led by Marshall. BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, manages spacecraft operations together with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.

To learn more about NASA’s space telescopes, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/universe

 

Visual Description:

This release features three sonifications related to black holes, presented as soundtracks to short videos. Each sonification video features a composite image representing a different aspect of the life of a black hole. These images are visualizations of data collected by NASA telescopes. During each video, a line sweeps through the image. When the line encounters a visual element, it is translated into sound according to parameters established by visualization scientist Kimberly Arcand, astrophysicist Matt Russo, musician Andrew Santaguida, and consultant Christine Malec.

The first sonification features WR124, an extremely bright, massive star. Here, the star is shown in a short-lived phase preceding the possible creation of a black hole. At the center of the composite image is the large gleaming star in white and pale blue. The star sits at the heart of a mottled pink and gold cloud, its long diffraction spikes extending to the outer edges. Also residing in the cloud are other large gleaming stars, glowing hot-pink dots, and tiny specks of blue and white light. In this sonification, the sound activation line is an ever-expanding circle which starts in the center of the massive star and continues to grow until it exits the frame.

The second sonification features SS 433, a binary star system at the center of a supernova remnant known as the Manatee Nebula. Visually, the translucent, blobby teal nebula does, indeed, resemble a bulbous walrus or manatee, floating in a red haze packed with distant specs of light. Inside the nebula is a violet streak, a blue streak, and a large bright dot. The dot, represented by a plucking sound in the sonification, is the binary system at the heart of the nebula. In this sonification, the vertical activation line begins at our right edge of the frame, and sweeps across the image before exiting at our left.

The third and final sonification features Centaurus A, a distant galaxy with an enormous black hole emitting a long jet of high-energy particles. The black hole sits at the center of the composite image, represented by a brilliant white light. A dark, grainy, oblong cloud cuts diagonally across the black hole from our lower left toward our upper right. A large, faint, translucent blue cloud stretches from our upper left to our lower right. And the long, thin jet, also in translucent blue, extends from the black hole at the center toward the upper lefthand corner. In this sonification, the activation line rotates around the image like the hand of a clock. It begins at the twelve o’clock position, and sweeps clockwise around the image.

 

Fast Facts for: WR 124
Credit:  X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: (Herschel) ESA/NASA/Caltech, (Spitzer) NASA/JPL/Caltech, (WISE) NASA/JPL/Caltech; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb ERO Production Team; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
Release Date:  May 8, 2025
About the Sound 
  • Inside-out scan
    • Brightness is mapped to volume and pitch
    • Brighter light is heard as louder and more high pitched sounds
    • Left-right position is mapped to left-right stereo position

  • Chandra (X-ray)
    • Bright sources are played on a harp, supported by synthetic tones

  • Webb (Infrared)
    • Nebula is rendered with flutes
    • Stars are played as metallic bell-like sounds
    • Light of the central star is also mapped to audio frequencies, (producing the descending scream-like sound at the beginning)

  • Herschel / WISE / Spitzer (Infrared)
    • Brightness controls the volume and highest pitch of the low drone chord, played on strings

Scale:  Image is about 2.2 arcmin (18 light-years) across.
Category  Normal Stars and Star Clusters
Coordinates (J2000):   RA: 19h 11m 30.8s | Dec: +16° 51′ 38.20″
Constellation:  Sagittarius
Observation Date(s):  4 observations from July 10-14, 2017
Observation Time:  26 hours (1 day 2 hours)
Obs. IDs:  18929, 20108-20110
Instrument:  ACIS
References:  Toala, J. et al., 2018, ApJL, 869, L11. arXiv:1811.10691
Color Code:  X-ray: purple; Infrared (Herschel, Spitzer, WISE): blue; Infrared (JWST): red, green, blue;
Distance Estimate:  About 28,000 light-years from Earth
IR
X-ray
distance arrow


Fast Facts for: SS 433
Credit:  X-ray: (IXPE): NASA/MSFC/IXPE; (Chandra): NASA/CXC/SAO; (XMM): ESA/XMM-Newton; IR: NASA/JPL/Caltech/WISE; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/VLA/B. Saxton. (IR/Radio image created with data from M. Goss, et al.); Image Processing/compositing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk & K. Arcand; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
Release Date:  May 8, 2025
About the Sound 
  • Right to left scan (as if manatee is swimming to the right)
  • Brightness is mapped to volume
  • Vertical position is mapped to note pitch (light towards the top is heard as higher pitches)
  • Horizontal position is mapped to stereo position (so the pan also moves from right to left)

  • Chandra (X-ray)
    • Light mapped to audio frequencies in a high range
    • Plucked sound represents the eclipsing binary star at the center of the nebula
    • The sound is pulsed along with the actual variable light curve of the eclipsing binary

  • Infrared
    • Red nebula mapped to musical tones on a synthesizer in a high range
    • Background stars mapped to musical pitches with a water-drop sound
    • Babbling brook sound represents the large number of very faint stars

  • Radio
    • Blue nebula (the manatee) mapped to audio frequencies in a low range
Above, Left: The W50 supernova remnant in radio (green) against the infrared background of stars and dust (red). Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, K. Golap, M. Goss; NASA's Wide Field Survey Explorer (WISE).
Above, Right: A Florida Manatee rests underwater in Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River, Florida. Credit: Image used with permission from Tracy Colson.
Scale:  Image is about 110 arcmin (570 light-years) across.
Category  Black Holes
Coordinates (J2000):   RA: 19h 11m 50s | Dec: +04° 58′ 42″
Constellation:  Aquila
Observation Date(s):  June 27, 2000
Observation Time:  2 hours 41 minutes
Obs. IDs:  659
Instrument:  ACIS
References:  Kaaret, P. et al, 2023, Published
Color Code:  X-ray: pink, blue, purple; IR: red; Radio: green
Distance Estimate:  About 18,000 light-years from Earth
Radio
IR
X-ray
distance arrow


Fast Facts for Centaurus A (Cen A):
Credit:  X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/SAO, (IXPE) NASA/MSFC; Optical: ESO; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand, J. Major, and J. Schmidt; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
Release Date:  May 8, 2025
About the Sound 
  • Radar-like scan, clockwise from 12 o’clock
  • Distance from the center is mapped to pitch (light farther from the center is higher pitched)
  • Brightness controls volume
  • Left-right position controls stereo position of the sound

  • Chandra (X-ray)
    • Chandra’s x-ray light is mapped to musical pitches of a pure tones
    • Compact sources are heard as a wind-chime type sound
    • The strong upper jet pointing towards the top left can be heard at 25 seconds

  • IXPE (X-ray)
    • IXPE’s x-ray light is mapped to a continuous range of frequencies, producing a wind-like sound

  • Optical
    • Light from galaxy’s stars are mapped to musical pitches on sustained string instruments
    • Compact background galaxies (and a foreground star?) are heard as plucked strings

Scale:  Image is about 25 arcmin (87,000 light-years) across.
Category  Quasars & Active Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000):   RA: 13h 25m 27.62s | Dec: -43° 01´ 08.80"
Constellation:  Centaurus
Observation Date(s):  21 pointings between 05 Dec 1999 and 29 Aug 2012
Observation Time:  229 hours 57 minutes (9 days 13 hours 57 min)
Obs. IDs:  316, 962, 2978, 3965, 7797-7799, 7800, 8489, 8490, 10722, 10723, 10724-10726, 11846, 11847, 12155, 12156, 13303, 13304
Instrument:  ACIS
References:  Snios, B. et al. 2019, ApJ, 871, 219; arXiv:1901.00509
Color Code:  X-ray: (Chandra) red, green, blue, (IXPE) red, green blue; Optical: red, green, blue
Distance Estimate:  About 12 million light-years from Earth
Optical
X-ray
distance arrow


Rate This Image

Rating: 5.0/5
(1 vote cast)
Download & Share

More Information
More Images
Chandra X-ray Image of
Centaurus A
Jpg, Tif
Still

More Images
Animation & Video
Tour: New NASA Sonifications Listen to the Universe's Past
animation

More Videos
More Releases
Related Images
WR 124
WR 124
(22 July 24)
SS 433
SS 433
(17 Jan 24)
Centaurus A
Centaurus A
(22 July 24)


Related Information
Related Podcast
Top Rated Images
Sonification Collection

The Bone (G359.13)

Data Sonification




FaceBookTwitterYouTubeFlickr