Gravity Assist: Listening to the Universe

NASA spacecraft deliver stunning visual imagery of the cosmos, but we can also experience that data by turning it into sound. Kim Arcand at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has helped develop many different sonifications including from galaxies, black holes, nebulae and more. Kim chats with NASA’s Chief Scientist Jim Green about her process of choosing instruments to represent different kinds of light, and plays a few examples of these cosmic sounds. Kim developed these sonifications in collaboration with astrophysicist Matt Russo and musician Andrew Santaguida, both of the SYSTEM Sound project. Check out the full series of sonifications at chandra.si.edu/sound and listen to the rest of this Gravity Assist podcast episode at nasa.gov/gravityassist.