NASA Puzzled by Unearthly Howling from Black Hole

Bright Side

NASA just picked up something super weird — a haunting howling sound coming from a black hole, and no one knows exactly what to make of it. 🌀🔊 It’s not the kind of sound you’d hear with your ears, but when they converted space vibrations into audio, this creepy, otherworldly noise showed up. Scientists expected something strange, but this was next-level eerie — kind of like space itself was crying out. The sound came from a black hole in the Perseus galaxy cluster, 250 million light-years away. And now NASA is scratching their heads, trying to figure out what exactly caused the cosmic howl.  Credit: New NASA Sonifications Listen to the Universe's Past / NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al. Cassiopeia A / NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danny Milisavljevic (Purdue University), Ilse De Looze (UGhent), Tea Temim (Princeton University)  Chandra X-ray Observatory: By NASA Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00NASA has recently revealed some eerie cosmic sounds that go against the popular misconception about the muteness of space.

00:10This discovery proves once again that the universe is far from silent.

00:16The revelation came from the Perseus Galaxy Cluster, located 250 million light-years away from Earth.

00:23There, NASA uncovered an unworldly howling coming from the supermassive black hole at its center.

00:35This discovery isn't super fresh. It was made in 2003.

00:40It marked the first time scientists detected an acoustic phenomenon from such a distant source.

00:46Sadly, the sound was not something you would be able to hear.

00:49Its frequency was just too low for the human ear to register.

00:53The lowest pitch the human ear can perceive is 20 hertz, 20 cycles per second.

00:59But the sound emitted by the black hole is a B-flat, 57 octaves below middle C, with a frequency of 10 million years.

01:09But NASA brought it to the realm of human hearing in 2022, turning that invisible sound into something you could actually experience.

01:18It was a breakthrough of cosmic proportions when NASA revealed that sound waves could travel through space.

01:28Specifically, through the medium of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.

01:32This medium is a hot, dense gas, something far more substantial than the empty vacuum between galaxies.

01:39That's how sound waves manage to travel there.

01:42Those sound waves produced by the supermassive black hole at the center of Perseus resonate through the hot gas as ripples.

01:51It's like how sound travels through water here on Earth.

01:55The thing is, space is indeed a vacuum, which means that sound cannot travel through it, in the traditional sense.

02:04But the gas surrounding the black hole in Perseus provided the perfect environment for sound to travel.

02:09The black hole's powerful jets create ripples, sending vibrations through the gas.

02:15And NASA scientists have identified those vibrations as a type of cosmic sound.

02:20Previously, it was totally invisible and unhearable.

02:24But now, for the first time, astronomers have helped it to take a form humans can hear.

02:29To give us a sense of how deep this sound is, NASA raised its pitch by 57 octaves so that it could finally be audible to the human ear.

02:42The result is a haunting, bass-heavy hum.

02:48It feels as though it is resonating from the very core of space itself.

02:54What NASA did is called sonification.

02:57This process involves mapping the characteristics of the data to audible sound.

03:02As a result, we can experience something that is otherwise beyond our perception.

03:07See those brighter areas of the cluster?

03:10They produce louder and higher-pitched tones.

03:15The sonification of the Perseus black hole isn't just a scientific discovery.

03:20It has allowed us to see, or should I say, hear, the universe in a completely different way.

03:27NASA has used this technique on several different space objects, including stars, nebulae, and galaxies, giving us a glimpse into the various ways space can sound.

03:41One of the coolest NASA's sonifications is Cassiopeia A.

03:47It's the remains of a star spotted as a supernova more than 300 years ago.

03:53Located around 10,000 light-years away from Earth, this shattered remnant of a once-massive star has a neutron star at its core.

04:02And it's the youngest neutron star in our galaxy that we know about.

04:08To perform the sonification of Cassiopeia A, NASA took the data captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and translated it into sound.

04:21Starting at the center, a triangle-shaped tone marks the location of the neutron star.

04:27Then, the sound spreads outward, which represents the expanding debris field.

04:32That's when the pitch rises and the tones become brighter.

04:36The sound grows louder and seems to mirror the outbursts of the supernova and the formation of new elements.

04:43The Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is a hotbed of star formation and one of the most active regions in the universe.

04:54Astronomers have been studying this nebula for a long time to learn more about how stars are born and evolve.

05:01So, no wonder that NASA scientists have been doing their best to translate the data from the nebula into sound.

05:09They've been mapping brightness and pitch to various features in the nebula.

05:13So, airy, synthesizer-like tones represent the chaotic and hot gases surrounding the most massive stars.

05:23And the cooler gases that are forming new stars have soft, low notes.

05:28Piano-like tones correspond to the brightest stars.

05:32And the central cluster of stars sounds like a rain stick.

05:37Interestingly, NASA's investigation into the sounds of space doesn't just involve cosmic phenomena.

05:45It's also based on the experiences of astronauts.

05:49And some of them are truly eerie.

05:52After all, space exploration is always filled with unexpected surprises.

05:57And sometimes, those surprises come in the form of strange noises aboard spacecraft.

06:06One such incident occurred aboard the International Space Station, when astronaut Butch Wilmore reported hearing a strange noise coming from Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.

06:17By that time, this spaceship had been docked at the station for almost three months.

06:22The Starliner had just completed an eight-day mission that went awry.

06:26The technical issues have been plaguing the spacecraft ever since.

06:31Wilmore described the sound as a pulsing noise, similar to a sonar ping.

06:36It was coming through the spacecraft's speaker system.

06:43This strange noise made Wilmore contact NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

06:49Of course, Mission Control immediately began investigating.

06:52They were able to listen to the audio inside the Starliner.

06:56Wilmore even held his microphone up to the speaker so that NASA could hear it more clearly.

07:02The people in charge of the investigation finally identified the source of the noise.

07:09They announced there was an audio configuration issue with the ISS's complex communication system.

07:16The thing is, this system connects numerous spacecraft and modules.

07:21And such configurations can sometimes lead to strange noises.

07:25NASA reassured everyone that such an issue wasn't really unusual.

07:30At the same time, they encourage astronauts to report any unexpected sounds they come across.

07:36At the same time, this incident was just another proof of how tricky it is to maintain advanced spacecraft systems in orbit.

07:47The Starliner had already faced serious delays and setbacks.

07:52And every new issue added extra pressure.

07:55Everyone was worried about the spacecraft's safe return to Earth.

07:59In any case, it's not the only incident involving eerie space sounds.

08:05In 1969, during the Apollo 10 mission, astronauts heard something truly bizarre while orbiting the Moon.

08:12Now, Apollo 10 was a dry run for the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.

08:19This mission involved astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cerny.

08:25They were testing the systems of the lunar module.

08:28Everything was going smoothly.

08:30And then, they started passing behind the Moon.

08:33In that region, radio signals from Earth couldn't reach them.

08:38At that point, they all started hearing a strange, high-pitched whistling sound.

08:50It was coming through their headsets.

08:52The origin of this noise baffled the astronauts since it wasn't supposed to exist in the near vacuum of space.

08:58At first, they simply joked that it sounded like outer space music.

09:03But in reality, the situation was quite unnerving.

09:07The astronauts were on the dark side of the Moon, far away from Earth and any help.

09:12And now, there was also that eerie, mysterious sound they couldn't explain.

09:18At the same time, NASA was super worried about astronauts' health and mental condition.

09:24So, the crew didn't immediately report the noise to mission control.

09:29But after they returned to Earth, NASA engineers thoroughly investigated the phenomenon.

09:34They came to the conclusion that the sound had most likely come from the spacecraft's communications system.

09:40The reason could be the unusual circumstances of the mission.

09:44After all, the spacecraft was kinda cut off Earth.

09:47The Moon was between it and our planet.

09:51Still, even after this extensive analysis, the origin and nature of the whistle is still a great mystery for many people.

10:01Anyway, all these new discoveries and old cosmic puzzles prove that the universe is far from silent.

10:08It hums, roars, whispers and reveals the mysteries of the cosmos one note at a time.

10:15In the future, as our technological abilities continue to evolve,

10:19NASA's work with sonification and its study of strange astronaut experiences will likely lead to even more awesome discoveries.

10:28And if we listen more closely, we may find that the universe is much more talkative than we think.

10:35That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

10:42Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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