Name: The sound the universe makes
Uploaded: 2011-03-15T14:09:00Z
Duration: 17 min 26 s
Description: We think of space as a silent place. But physicist Janna Levin says the universe has a soundtrack -- a sonic composition that records some of the most dramatic events in outer space. (Black holes, for instance, bang on spacetime like a drum.) An accessible and mind-expanding soundwalk through the universe.

Janna Levin: The sound the universe makes

The sound the universe makes

We think of space as a silent place. But physicist Janna Levin says the universe has a soundtrack -- a sonic composition that records some of the most dramatic events in outer space. (Black holes, for instance, bang on spacetime like a drum.) An accessible and mind-expanding soundwalk through the universe.

Space is not the silent void it seems; instead, it vibrates with cosmic events that create real, detectable sounds. Black holes, though invisible, strike space-time like drums and send gravitational waves across the universe. New experiments like LIGO and LISA aim to capture these ripples, turning the universe’s most dramatic moments—including black hole collisions and the Big Bang itself—into a kind of music. This search for cosmic sound promises to deepen our understanding of the universe’s hidden stories.