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The Sound of a Black Hole

Posted by michael on from the subwoofer dept.

Snags writes "Astronomers have used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to observe the deepest, lowest-frequency sound waves ever observed. By my calculations, the 'B-Flat 57 octaves below middle-C' has a period of 9.8 million years. Despite arguments that explosions in space movies should be silent, it is legitimate to call these sound waves because at that frequency, particles of space dust can 'see' each other through gravity. These notes are 'over a million billion times deeper than the limits of human hearing', so to call it infra-sound would be a bit of an understatement."

7 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. That explains! by orkysoft · · Score: 5, Funny

    Infrasound! Now that explains why many people have this irrational fear of black holes! :-)

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    I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
  2. Wow - and I thought Germany had a long concert by MerlynEmrys67 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    bbc.co.uk

    So this is a 639 year concert that has started in Germany. The concert has been ongoing for 17 months (the initial "quiet period" of the organ filling) however the first three note chord has been hit.

    Boy wish I had that kind of time to waste... Imagine the monks 630 years from now going - "Well, this is over now - what the hell are we going to do now ?"

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    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
  3. This would be a "RTFA". It *is* sound. by JeanPaulBob · · Score: 5, Informative
    Read the Space.com link.

    The Perseus cluster is the brightest known in X-rays, making it a good target for study. It has two large, bubble-shaped cavities that extend away from a central black hole. The cavities are formed by jets of material ejected from the black hole's surroundings, and the jets have been suspected of heating the outlying gas. But scientists couldn't see how.

    A special image-processing technique was used to bring out subtle changes in brightness that revealed the presence of ripples -- the sound waves.

    Fabian and Allen figure the sound waves, observed spreading out from the cavities, heat the gas. The amount of energy involved is staggering, equal to what would be produced if 100 million stars exploded.
    They're not saying that infra-radiation is sound--they used the telescope to see ripples in the gas. That's the sound.
  4. GSS by falsification · · Score: 5, Funny
    B-Flat 57 octaves below middle-C

    AKA "a giant sucking sound."

  5. No matter. by bobdotorg · · Score: 4, Funny

    My extreme audiophile friend now has to replace his whole system to capture the experience of these new sounds.

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    __ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
  6. Concert by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wouldn't buy tickets to a music-playing blackhole concert. They suck.

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    Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
    1. Re:Concert by danratherfan · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know. I liked their one and only album "Songs from the Singularity".