Music by Telescopic Observation
A unique opportunity is been given by NASA to humanity by leveraging modern technologies to release ‘music’ created by transforming telescope observation data into sounds. The procedure being used is not new, which is known as sonification. According to NASA, this is the first time images of our galaxy have been transformed into sound. Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra Observatory, and more tapped a variety of sources for the data.
Understanding Material by Various Human Senses
Visual representation of data is most common, although data can be represented in a variety of other ways too. NASA noted that humans heavily rely on sight to perceive and understand the material world but it is not the only sense. The other sense is the ability to hear things that offer a unique perception offered by sound, where a variety of underlying data is represented.
And now NASA has combined visual and hearing ability by taking observation data used to create some of its most notable Milky Way images and sound is backed by the data. Elements like light, gas, dust, objects, and many other elements are presented with different sounds ranging from low drones to high pitches rather than representing them visually. The intensity and pitch of the audio are controlled by the lighting in the images.
Combination of Tracks
Each telescope behind the observations was assigned by the space agency to function as individual instruments and their respective sounds representing the types of data the telescopes were designed to observe. A few pieces of music and solo tracks were generated by NASA from these various observations and some of the music were combined or left isolated for a beautiful or haunting experience. A variety of sounds are produced by NASA.
The music is played from left to right across the images in some of the pieces while in others relies on the type of image converted to audio and music was produced from the center of the image spreading outward. Massive sky surveys covering hundreds of light-years to more isolated images featuring stars, pulsars, and more must be included in the generated music.