NASA has released audio it captured from a black hole, sharing sounds waves that it previously identified but have made audible for the first time.
NASA’s team that explores space for planets and life outside the solar system tweeted on Sunday that the idea that sound does not exist in space is a misconception.
Most of outer space is a vacuum that does not provide a way for sound waves to travel, but a galaxy cluster, where hundreds or thousands of galaxies are held together by gravity, has enough gas for sound to be observed.
NASA amplified the sound waves it received from the Perseus galaxy cluster, located about 240 million light-years away, and mixed them with other data to allow people to hear a black hole.
Black holes are parts of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. Many of them form when stars collapse at the end of their life cycle.
Astronomers captured the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy in May. Scientists believe almost all galaxies have one at their center.