NASA turns Hubble and Chandra data into cosmic music: Here's what a star cluster sounds like

Here's what a star cluster sounds like

NASA has shared a sonification video of star cluster Westerlund 2, in which the data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory is represented as sound.

Led by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Universe of Learning, the sonification project transforms otherwise inaudible data from some of the world's most powerful telescopes into sound, making it possible to experience data from cosmic sources with a different sense - hearing.

Westerlund 2, a cluster of young stars about one to two million years old, is located about 20,000 light years from Earth. In its visual image form, data from Hubble (green and blue) reveals thick clouds in the star-forming region, while high-energy radiation in the form of X-rays seen from Chandra (purple) penetrates through that cosmic haze.

In this sonification of Westerlund 2, the Hubble data is played by strings, either plucked for individual stars or bowed for diffuse clouds. Chandra's X-ray data, on the other hand, is represented by bells, and the more diffuse X-ray light is played by more sustained tones.

Sounds sweep from left to right across the field of view with brighter light assigned louder sounds. The pitch of the notes indicates the vertical position of the sources in the image with the higher pitches towards the top of the image.

Sonification Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)