(June 21, 2012) What does
the universe look like at high energies? Thanks to the Fermi Large Area
Telescope (LAT), we can extend our sense of sight to "see" the
universe in gamma rays. But humans not only have a sense of sight, we also have
a sense of sound. If we could listen to the high-energy universe, what would we
hear? What does the universe sound like?
A gamma-ray
burst, the most energetic explosions in the universe, converted to music. Made
by Sylvia Zhu (music) and Judy Racusin (animation)
Every
photon has its own energy and frequency; the higher the energy, the higher the
frequency. Some photons have just the right frequencies for us to see them as
different colors, while others -- such as the gamma rays studied by the Fermi
LAT -- are much too energetic to be seen with our eyes. Sound waves have
frequencies too, and similarly, we can hear some of them as musical notes. So
what happens if we convert high-energy photons into musical notes?