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Animations: 'Listen' to the Light Echoes From a Black Hole
V404 Cygni Sonification (Composite)
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
[Runtime: 00:26]

arrow icon Audio Only Versions

The primary sonification of this release combines all three previous videos. Here, the expanding thin white circle encounters the hazy bright blue dot at the core, the overlapping red and blue concentric rings, and all the stars in the sky, creating a musical interpretation of the V404 Cygni system some 7,800 light years from Earth.


V404 Cygnus Sonification (Wavelengths)
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
[Runtime: 01:31]

arrow icon Audio Only Versions

Swift
The sonification video of V404 Cygni features a hazy, bright blue dot surrounded by three concentric, glowing, deep red rings set against a black background. The rings of radiation are grainy and blurred, resembling curved tire marks left in wet snow. The smallest ring, closest to the blue dot at the core, is tightest and brightest. The largest ring, furthest from the core, is most faint and appears to have dissipated. The rings of radiation were observed as X-ray data collected by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. In the sonification video, a thin white circle expands from the core. As it passes over the rings, the datapoints crackle. The brighter the ring, the louder the sound.

Chandra
This sonification video of V404 Cygni features similar glowing concentric rings set against a black background. This time the radiation rings have been rendered in bright neon blue, representing data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Here, there are clean breaks in the visualized radiation at our upper corners and in a straight horizontal line across the center of the frame, as if portions of the rings were removed with swipes of an eraser. These blank spots represent areas outside of Chandra's field of view. As the thin white circle expands in this sonification video, the radiation it washes over is translated into higher-frequency popping sounds.

Optical
This sonification video of V404 Cygni features a black sky dotted with specks of white and pale blue light. These are the V404 Cygni system background stars, photographed by the Digitized Sky Survey. As the thin white circle expands in this sonification video, each star it encounters triggers a musical note. The volume and pitch relate to the brightness of the stars.


Quick Look: 'Listen' to the Light Echoes From a Black Hole
(Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)
[Runtime: 00:56]

A new sonification turns X-ray “light echoes” from a black hole into sound.

Rings of X-rays seen by NASA’s Chandra and Swift observatories show the echoes.

Material around a black hole can generate bursts of X-rays.

The X-rays reflect off clouds of gas and dust like beams from headlights can in fog.





Audio Only Versions (Downloads)


V404 Cygni (Composite):
All Wavelengths: .mp3 .ogg .m4r


V404 Cygnus (Wavelengths):
Chandra (X-ray): .mp3 .ogg .m4r
Swift (X-ray): .mp3 .ogg .m4r
Optical: .mp3 .ogg .m4r



Return to: 'Listen' to the Light Echoes From a Black Hole (November 21, 2022)