NASA Just Revealed Actual Sound Of Black Holes And It’s... Haunting!

Have you ever listened to the sound of a black hole? In case you were wondering — or in case you thought it was unsettlingly quiet — NASA has discovered that, yes, black holes do produce sound.

It sounds like the ideal music for a horror movie, as if we're at the conclusion of 2001: A Space Odyssey, so it's worth taking the time to listen.

NASA reportedly managed to record a black hole's soundwaves from more than 200 million light-years distant, according to CNET. The Perseus galaxy cluster, an impressive 11 million-light-year-wide collection of galaxies covered in hot gas, is where the black hole is located, according to the article.

The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e

— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) August 21, 2022

Therefore, the Perseus galaxy cluster has a huge gas cloud, which is how researchers were able to record the black hole's sound. According to CNET, since space is a vacuum and waves must vibrate through something in order to produce sound, most people think that music cannot exist there.

However, the black hole's surrounding gas made it feasible to record its distinctive sound. Due to its near proximity to all the gas, the black hole at Perseus can go beyond the vacuum of space. The hot gas ripples were what the scientists were able to concentrate on.

Now, although the sound waves are audible to NASA's equipment, they are not to our human hearing. To enable us to hear what a black hole sounds like, scientists scaled the sound.

“The [sound waves] are being heard 144 quadrillion and 288 quadrillion times higher than their original frequency,” NASA said.

NASA posted a sound sample that was blown up for our little ears to hear what a black hole sounds like. Additionally, it has a lovely, eerie tone that sounds well suited for a thriller or horror film.

Given that it is so improved, it is obviously impossible to tell if this is exactly how the black hole sounds, but it is still quite cool.