Sonified: The Jellyfish Nebula Supernova Remnant Image Credit:
X-ray (blue):
Chandra
(
NASA) &
ROSAT
(
ESA);
Optical (red):
DSS
(
NSF);
Radio (green):
VLA
(
NRAO,
NSF);
Sonification:
NASA,
CXC,
SAO,
K. Arcand;
SYSTEM Sounds:
M. Russo,
A. Santaguida)
Explanation:
What does a supernova remnant sound like?
Although
sound is a compression wave in matter and does not carry into
empty space,
interpretive sound
can help listeners appreciate and
understand a visual image of a
supernova remnant in a new way.
Recently, the Jellyfish Nebula
(
IC 443)
has been sonified quite creatively.
In the
featured sound-enhanced video,
when an imaginary line passes over a star,
the sound of a drop falling into water is played,
a sound particularly relevant to the nebula's
aquatic namesake.
Additionally, when the descending line crosses gas that glows red,
a low
tone is played, while green sounds a middle tone,
and blue produces a tone with a relatively high
pitch.
Light from the supernova that created the
Jellyfish Nebula
left approximately 35,000 years ago, when
humanity was in the
stone age.
The nebula will slowly disperse over the next million years,
although the
explosion
also created a dense
neutron star which will remain indefinitely.