> >June 03, 2013 >Voices of the Cosmos --"New Harvard CfA Site Allows Listeners to Hear the >Music of the Stars" > > > > > > > >Plato, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, described music and astronomy >as “sister sciences” that encompassed harmonious motions, whether of >instrument strings or celestial objects. This philosophy of a “Music of the >Spheres” was symbolic. However, modern technology is creating a true music of >the spheres by transforming astronomical data into unique musical compositions. >Gerhard Sonnert, a research associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for >Astrophysics, has created a new website that allows listeners to literally >hear the music of the stars. He worked with Wanda Diaz-Merced, a postdoctoral >student at the University of Glasgow whose blindness led her into the field of >sonification (turning astrophysical data into sound), and with composer >Volkmar Studtrucker, who turned the sound into music. >“I saw the musical notes on Wanda’s desk and I got inspired,” Sonnert said. >Diaz-Merced lost her sight in her early 20s while studying physics. When she >visited an astronomy lab and heard the hiss of a signal from a radio >telescope, she realized that she might be able to continue doing the science >she loved. She now works with a program called xSonify, which allows users to >present numerical data as sound and use pitch, volume, or rhythm to >distinguish between different data values. >During a visit to the Center for Astrophysics in 2011, Diaz-Merced worked with >data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The target was an EX Hydrae — a >binary system consisting of a normal star and a white dwarf. Known as a >cataclysmic variable, the system fluctuates in X-ray brightness as the white >dwarf consumes gas from its companion. >Diaz-Merced plugged the Chandra X-ray data into xSonify and converted it into >musical notes. The results sound random, but Sonnert sensed that they could >become something more pleasing to the ear. He contacted Studtrucker, who chose >short passages from the sonified notes, perhaps 70 bars in all, and added >harmonies in different musical styles. Sound files that began as atonal >compositions transformed into blues jams and jazz ballads, to name just two >examples of the nine songs produced. >“We’re still extracting meaning from data, but in a very different way,” >explained Sonnert. >You can listen to the results of the project at the Star Songs website. > > >
