Cosmic Echoes
Perseus Cluster

NASA sonification archive

The universe is not silent.

Telescopes record light we cannot hear. Scientists map that data to pitch and volume so anyone can listen — black holes, exploded stars, nebulae, and worlds next door.

Now queued

Perseus Cluster

The black hole that hums

Scientists raised the pitch by 57–58 octaves so you can hear it. The sound grows outward from the center, the way the waves actually travel through the cluster.

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The archive

37 sonifications from Chandra, Hubble, Webb, and more.

How sonification works

Not a soundtrack. A translation.

01

Telescopes collect light

Chandra, Hubble, Webb and others record X-rays, infrared, and visible light — most of it invisible to our eyes, and none of it audible.

02

Data is mapped to sound

Brightness becomes volume. Position becomes pitch. Each wavelength of light is assigned its own instrument or register. Nothing is composed over the image; the notes are the data.

03

You hear the object

A scan line moves across the picture as the sound plays, so you can follow what you’re hearing. Built first for blind and low-vision listeners — captivating for anyone.

Audio and images are NASA public-domain data, primarily from the Chandra X-ray Observatory “Universe of Sound” program and NASA’s Webb sonification releases. Sonifications by NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand and SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida). This listening room is an independent guide — not an official NASA site.

Perseus Cluster

Black hole waves