Sounds in space, how do you feel about it?

[Zubi-Ondo]

Technically speaking, it would have been created by whatever caused the diaphragm in the microphone to flex or vibrate. If it was open to space, tiny particles hitting the diaphragm surface could "simulate" varying pressure, but so could varying pressure. I don't mean to be confusing; what I'm saying is that the mechanism in a microphone could be caused to operate by various things other than changes in air pressure. The coil inside the microphone has a magnetic core that senses the variations in the diaphragm. So magnetic variations could cause an output without the diaphragm ever moving. I know enough technology to question this method of gathering "Sun Noise".
It would be more appropriate to use a directional receiver dish and analyze the entire spectrum of radiation coming from the sun and see if some of it is in the sonic frequency range.

- Z.

 

[AE35Unit]

It wouldn't be sound tho. Even if the sun is producing sounds,and i'm sure it does,a microphone in space couldn't pick it up because there's no air between it and the sun. No air = no sound

 

[Dave]

Sound is defined as vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas. The Space between the Earth and the Sun is not empty, the particles are just very rare, so if one was being very picky and fastidious, those particles hitting a microphone do count as sound. Personally, I think you should just agree to disagree on this one.

 

[Ursa major]

The sound, though, would originate at the microphone; before then, it would not be sound.

However, if there were pressure waves travelling through the gas, that would count as sound.

 

[AE35Unit]

Na,tho there may be dust and stuff between us and the sun its not a continuous medium and sound would not travel thru it.

 

[Dave]

No, the sound can really be there, it is just too quiet for our ears to hear, and for most equipment to pick up.

SPACE.com -- Sounds in Space: Silencing Misconceptions

"We wouldn't be able to hear the sound because our ears aren't sensitive enough," explains Lynn Carter, a graduate student in astronomy at Cornell University. Not enough atoms -- if any -- would strike our eardrums. "Maybe if we had an amazingly large and sensitive microphone we could detect these sounds, but to our human ear it would be silent

I think Zubi-Ondo is correct that the "Sun Noise" is not sound at all, but the magnetic effects of electromagnetic radiation. However, they have picked up a B-Flat from a Black Hole using extremely sensitive equipment.

 

[Ursa major]

However, they have picked up a B-Flat from a Black Hole using extremely sensitive equipment.

Ironic, though, that something that curves space time so much produces a flat note.

 

[AE35Unit]

Thats bo)(@<ۤ,sound needs air to travel in as sound is simply the vibration of air. No air no sound as there's nothing to vibrate

 

[ctg]

No, the sound can really be there, it is just too quiet for our ears to hear, and for most equipment to pick up.

SPACE.com -- Sounds in Space: Silencing Misconceptions



I think Zubi-Ondo is correct that the "Sun Noise" is not sound at all, but the magnetic effects of electromagnetic radiation. However, they have picked up a B-Flat from a Black Hole using extremely sensitive equipment.

I love you Dave, that is exactly the kind of article I was looking (but I obviously missed it). As the article says, the space isn't an absolute vacuum, but it has an extremely thin atmosphere that act as a medium. Using the same thought process, wouldn't one hear noises such as thunder in the nebula, or would one seeing those lines say, "...thunder in the space? Are you f*ck**g mad? That sort of b*ll**ks wouldn't ever f*ck**g happen..."

 

[Ursa major]

And then one of the characters could go into a long and tedious explanation of why something can be heard in a nebula of whatever type and density it is. Excellent!


Although....

 

[Zubi-Ondo]

However, they have picked up a B-Flat from a Black Hole using extremely sensitive equipment.

Great, just my luck. I could jam with the black hole, but my harmonica is tuned to C-Sharp!

- Z.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

No, the sound can really be there, it is just too quiet for our ears to hear, and for most equipment to pick up.

SPACE.com -- Sounds in Space: Silencing Misconceptions

I think Zubi-Ondo is correct that the "Sun Noise" is not sound at all, but the magnetic effects of electromagnetic radiation. However, they have picked up a B-Flat from a Black Hole using extremely sensitive equipment.

An interesting article, but it makes clear that they didn't actually hear the sound - they saw it - as light waves. To hear it, an observer would have had to be within the volume of gas around the black hole - not very healthy.

For sound to be heard, there needs to be a sufficient density of gas for a compression wave to be transmitted through it. That just doesn't exist in space, save in very exceptional circumstances.

 

[Dave]

...it makes clear that they didn't actually hear the sound - they saw it - as light waves. To hear it, an observer would have had to be within the volume of gas around the black hole - not very healthy...

Well, I wouldn't advise talking your helmet off in Space at all, not even well away from a Black Hole. This is all hypothetical.

Thats bo)(@<ۤ, sound needs air to travel in as sound is simply the vibration of air. No air no sound as there's nothing to vibrate

Language please! It is vibration through solid, liquid or gas. Gas is the least best medium. Have you never put your ear to the ground to hear a train coming? Haven't you heard sounds when swimming underwater? Have you never made a string telephone?

All I'm saying is that Space is not a complete vacuum, but it is so rarefied to be practically so to most intents and purposes.

You would actually be able to really hear sound on the surface of Mars where the atmospheric pressure is 600 Pascals compared to Earth's 101300 Pascals, but again you would die from lack of air, and the low pressure, among other things (but no Arnie eye-popping, see Total Recall thread for more detail.)

Using the same thought process, wouldn't one hear noises such as thunder in the nebula, or would one seeing those lines say, "...thunder in the space?

I can imagine alien creatures that can live in a vacuum, existing within a nebula - like Star Seeds or Integral Trees - that can actually hear the thunder.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

You would actually be able to really hear sound on the surface of Mars where the atmospheric pressure is 600 Pascals compared to Earth's 101300 Pascals, but again you would die from lack of air, and the low pressure, among other things (but no Arnie eye-popping, see Total Recall thread for more detail.).

Actually, the article previously listed said the unaided human ear would not be able to hear sounds on Mars - they would be too faint - so sensitive microphones with powerful amplifiers would be needed to hear anything.

 

[Dave]

Sorry, I'm probably wrong on that. There could be some disagreement over what the Mars Microphone would have heard though, had it not been lost. Mars Microphone Home Page

Again, as you wouldn't want to place your unaided ear in the Martian atmosphere, it is just speculation anyway.

 

[Urlik]

Using the same thought process, wouldn't one hear noises such as thunder in the nebula

if your ship was in the nebula, there is a good chance that the sound wave will travel through the hull and be audible within the ship (as solids are great conductors of sound waves)

 

[Marcus15]

It's a simple matter of effect. For instance, the creators of the opening sequence of Star Trek:The Original Series put in the "swoosh" sound simply because without it the Enterprise racing past had little dramatic effect.
Knowledgable Sci Fi fans had to suspend their disbelief.

 

[ushumgal]

One thing to recall, when desiring dramatic effect, is that while you couldn't hear leaser blasts or whatever in space, if you were in the ship firing the weapon, or being hit by it, there may well be an accompanying sound or vibration. I don't imagine lasers would be very noisy, but one could perhaps describe a hum or a shudder in the deck or something?

I thing a more irritating scifi screen convention is the spaceships flying around like airplanes thing. That's one of the things that originally got me interested in Babylon-5; they actually attempted to show something like real physics at work.

 

[ctg]

if your ship was in the nebula, there is a good chance that the sound wave will travel through the hull and be audible within the ship (as solids are great conductors of sound waves)

Now, say that you managed to get your ship in the 'Pillars of Creation', which are several light years across and holds newly born stars. Would such a thing as asteroids crashing/bashing each other, and the solar wind be audible to the inside of a spaceship.

 

[AE35Unit]

As for the lasers well i reckon a really powerful one would make quite a noise. Think of lightning,which vapourises a column of air which is suddenly filled with air again creating the bang. A similar thing might happen with a laser,provided there was an atmosphere.