The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) has launched a new ‘sonification’ project which converts data from astronomical images into sound. This innovative approach to data presentation is designed to make space more accessible to a broad audience, including the visually impaired community.
Data Sonification Explained
Data sonification refers to using sound values to represent real data. It is an auditory interpretation of data visualization. In NASA’s Chandra project, multiple musical notes are used to represent different kinds of data. Different celestial events, such as the birth of a star, a cloud of dust or a black hole can be represented as high- or low-pitched sounds.
The Process of Image to Sound Translation
Space telescopes compile digital data in binary form before they are converted into images. These images visually portray light and radiation of different wavelengths in space that human eyes cannot see. The Chandra project took this process one step further by transforming the same data into sound. To do this, the brightness and position of a celestial object were signified by pitch and volume. Pitch correlates with the frequency of sound waves while the volume corresponds to the strength, intensity, pressure, or power of the sound.
Chandra Project Sources
The data utilized in the Chandra project was collected by NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. So far, three examples have been released – the Galactic Centre, Cassiopeia A, and Pillars of Creation Nebula.
About the Galactic Centre
The Galactic Centre is the rotational centre of the Milky Way galaxy. It comprises a collection of celestial objects; neutron and white dwarf stars, clouds of dust and gas, and a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*, which weighs four million times the mass of the sun.
About Cassiopeia A
Cassiopeia A is located around 11,000 light-years away from Earth in the northern Cassiopeia constellation. It is a famous remnant of a star destroyed by a supernova explosion about 325 years ago.
Understanding the Pillars of Creation
Located in the Eagle Nebula’s centre, the iconic Pillars of Creation is a constellation of stars also known as Messier 16.
The Significance of Data Sonification
NASA, in collaboration with its Universe of Learning Program (UoL), led the sonification project. They continue to incorporate NASA science content into the learning environment effectively and efficiently for learners across all age groups. The main aim is to make data about space more accessible to a larger audience, including visually impaired communities, by allowing them to experience space through sound representation of data.
Chandra X-ray Project Overview
The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched by Space Shuttle Columbia in 1999. It is one of NASA’s ‘Great Observatories’ along with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, which are designed to detect X-rays produced where matter is heated to millions of degrees—usually in areas with high magnetic fields, extreme gravity, or explosive forces. The telescope is named after Indian astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who won the Nobel Prize for his work that led to the discovery of black holes.
The Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the largest and most versatile telescopes in service. Launched in 1990, its four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared spectra.
Understanding Black Holes
Black holes are points in space where matter is so dense that it creates a gravitational field from which not even light can escape. The theory of black holes was formulated by Albert Einstein in 1915, and the term ‘black hole’ was coined by American Physicist John Archibald Wheeler in the mid-1960s.
About Supernova
A supernova is a term that describes the explosion of a star. It is considered the largest explosion that occurs in space and is caused by a change in the star’s core.
Neutron Stars Defined
Neutron stars are one of the possible evolutionary end-points of high mass stars. They form when the core of the star has completely converted to iron, causing energy production to cease, leading to a rapid collapse of the star’s core. This collapse results in the formation of neutrons and neutrinos, giving rise to what is known as a ‘neutron star’, which may be seen as a pulsar if its magnetic field is aligned with its spin axis.