This may not rival the Beethoven bangers of that time, but we still consider it a one-hit wonder.

8 months ago
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Listen to a data sonification of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*. New evidence suggests the ancient sleeping giant woke recently, about 200 years ago, to feast on gas and other cosmic material within its reach.⁣

Combined images of Sagittarius A* allowed researchers to adapt visual information data from our Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and @NASAChandraXray into sound, creating this sonification.⁣

Sagittarius A* is far less luminous than other black holes at the centers of galaxies we can observe, which means our galaxy’s central black hole has not been actively gobbling up material around it.⁣

Image description: An arched line ripples across the image, starting at the lower righthand corner. As it passes over the orange-tinted IXPE data, sounds like digital winds are triggered, particularly where those orange areas are brightest. When the traveling line passes over the blue-tinted Chandra data, the resulting notes resemble steel drums.⁣

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