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What did you always wonder about #BlackHoles? Something that you always wanted to ask an astronomer working on them?
Collecting questions for a reason, maybe even answering them in the comments (or at a later point).
@vicgrinberg I want to understand how black holes produce sound that causes ripples in gasses a gazillion number of light years away. What kind of immense power would that take?
@Thoreau thanks for the question! I'm a bit confused what you mean with the sound here - can you explain a bit more or point me to where you read it?
@Thoreau@mas.to@vicgrinberg Yes, NASA released a recording, adjusted to the human range of hearing. There are some other videos that use this recording and explain these cause ripples.
The viral audio, to be clear, is not a recording: it has been produced by 'sonifying' data taken from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (another space telescope). The audio produced was originally 57 octaves below middle C, which meant the frequency had to be raised 'quadrillions' of times to be heard by human ears.Sep 1, 2022
@Thoreau ah! think a bit about what happens when you move a ball through water, even just a bit - it causes all kinds of ripples. Same happen for a black hole in the middle of the gas in a galaxy. Move it around a bit, and you get a very similar effect!