NASA’s black hole recording sounds like something out of a horror movie | Listen

Image credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center/YouTube

NASA has released the haunting audio clip of a black hole at the center of a galaxy cluster more than 200 million light years away – and listeners on Earth couldn’t help but note how eerie it sounds.

The recording is created from the soundwaves of a black hole at the centre of Perseus galaxy cluster. According to NASA, it is a common misconception that there is no sound in space. Most of space is vaccum, so there is no way for sound waves to travel – but the Perseus galaxy cluster is surrounded by thick gases that rippled when the black hole sent out pressure waves.

“In this sonification of Perseus, the sound waves astronomers previously identified were extracted and made audible for the first time. The sound waves were extracted outward from the center,” NASA said while sharing the audio clip.

The sound has been edited and amplified so that it is audible to the human ear - NASA said it scaled the sound up 57 and 58 octaves above their original pitch so humans could ‘hear’ a black hole.

The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e

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— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) August 21, 2022

On Twitter, where the recording has collected a staggering 12 million views, listeners compared the noise to horror movie theme songs and the wailing of ghosts. Similarly, on YouTube, where the data sonification was first released in May, users were quick to note how spooky it sounded.

“Sounds like a background music of a scariest horror movie,” wrote one person. “Great, just what I needed, existential dread! Thanks, NASA!” another joked, while a third described the sound as terrifying.

“The popular misconception that there is no sound in space originates with the fact that most of space is essentially a vacuum, providing no medium for sound waves to propagate through,” NASA had explained while sharing the clip.

“A galaxy cluster, on the other hand, has copious amounts of gas that envelop the hundreds or even thousands of galaxies within it, providing a medium for the sound waves to travel.”