Space roar: The mystery of the loudest sound in the universe (2024)

FAQs

Is space roar a real thing? ›

But because the "space roar" is caused by synchrotron radiation, a type of emission from high-energy charged particles in magnetic fields, and because every source has the same characteristic spectrum, pinpointing the origin of this intense signal is difficult.

No, there isn't sound in space.

This is because sound travels through the vibration of particles, and space is a vacuum. On Earth, sound mainly travels to your ears by way of vibrating air molecules, but in near-empty regions of space there are no (or very, very few) particles to vibrate – so no sound.

A succession of astronauts have described the smell as '… a rather pleasant metallic sensation ... [like] ... sweet-smelling welding fumes', 'burning metal', 'a distinct odour of ozone, an acrid smell', 'walnuts and brake pads', 'gunpowder' and even 'burnt almond cookie'.

Humans are unique in being able to express complex concepts and emotions with speech, but it doesn't mean we're not animals – roars are among a wide range of human nonverbal vocalisations that still mediate our interactions.

The loudest sound in recorded history came from the volcanic eruption on the Indonesian island Krakatoa at 10.02 a.m. on August 27, 1883. The explosion caused two thirds of the island to collapse and formed tsunami waves as high as 46 m (151 ft) rocking ships as far away as South Africa.

Sound waves from the nascent universe, called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs), left their imprint on the cosmos by influencing galaxy distribution. Researchers have explored this imprint back to when the universe was three billion years old, or roughly 20% of its current age of 13.8 billion years.

Jim Fuller. The loudest sound in the universe definitely comes from black hole mergers. In this case the “sound” comes out in gravitational waves and not ordinary sound waves.

Scientists have discovered a "strange and persistent" radio signal from a far-off galaxy that sounded like a heartbeat. Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and elsewhere detected the signal, which is classified as a fast radio burst, or FRB — but lasted much longer.

Low-frequency background noise

Humans are unable to hear Earth's hum because it ranges between 2.9 and 4.5 Mhz. In general, humans can hear anything from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. So, this means that Earth's hum is about 10,000 times lower than what we are capable of hearing.

Does space have white noise? ›

This mass of static echoes throughout our universe and is composed of radio signals, electromagnetic waves and radiation. These signals are emitted by large celestial objects and residual radiation from the Big Bang. Cosmic noise can be converted into audio signals that sound a lot like white noise.

No, they don't believe there's an end to space. However, we can only see a certain volume of all that's out there. Since the universe is 13.8 billion years old, light from a galaxy more than 13.8 billion light-years away hasn't had time to reach us yet, so we have no way of knowing such a galaxy exists.

NASA says there is a misconception that there is no sound in space NASA released a sound from the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster. What you'll hear is pressure waves emitted from the black hole causing ripples in the star cluster's hot gas.

Sound does not travel at all in space. The vacuum of outer space has essentially zero air. Because sound is just vibrating air, space has no air to vibrate and therefore no sound.

Bones and muscles weaken

If you stay for a long time in space, your muscles and bones will weaken, primarily in the legs and lower back. Gravity always acts on you while you're on the earth, so even if you're not really conscious of resisting gravity, you're always using the muscles of your lower body.

Space emits many wavelengths of light - including a lot of blue and red light that our human eyes can see - but also ultraviolet light, gamma rays, and X-rays, which remain invisible to us.

In space we can assume that there would be no external organisms such as insects and fungi to break down the body, but we still carry plenty of bacteria with us. Left unchecked, these would rapidly multiply and cause putrefaction of a corpse on board the shuttle or the ISS.

Interestingly, the snow leopard - also a member of Panthera along with lions etc - cannot roar. Its vocal cords lack an all-important layer of fatty, elasticated tissue, which, in other big cats, gives the vocalisations an uneven rumble that emerges as a roar.

The lion intimidates other competitors because scouting reports (my experience) say it's very loud. It has a reputation in Africa as the loudest roar.

Cheetahs can't roar, though they can they purr. Still, conservation groups tend to embrace the wider definition of “big cats” that also includes snow leopards and cougars. Even though their speed makes them fearsome hunters, cheetahs are the most vulnerable of the world's big cats.

How loud can a human survive? ›

A whisper is about 30 dB, normal conversation is about 60 dB, and a motorcycle engine running is about 95 dB. Noise above 70 dB over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing. Loud noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears.

Jill Drake, a teaching assistant who in 2000 won the Guinness World Record for the loudest individual's shout – 129 dB.

Vishnu, Lord of the universe, is a Hindu God known to have reincarnated into more than one form called Avatars. In other words, he is recognizable through the faces of other gods who receive praise within the Hindu beliefs. Here we have sculptures of Vishnu and a few of his forms ranging 8th-19th century.

How much bass would it take to destroy the universe? The simple answer: 1,100 decibels, and some of you might say to yourself: “1,100 decibels just doesn't seem like it would be that loud.” You're right, it doesn't.

No, you cannot hear any sounds in near-empty regions of space. Sound travels through the vibration of atoms and molecules in a medium (such as air or water). In space, where there is no air, sound has no way to travel.

Einstein's theory of spacetime tells us that the real universe is not silent, but is actually alive with vibrating energy. Space and time carry a cacophony of vibrations with textures and timbres as rich and varied as the din of sounds in a tropical rain forest or the finale of a Wagner opera.

On Earth, sound travels to your ears by vibrating air molecules. In deep space, the large empty areas between stars and planets, there are no molecules to vibrate. There is no sound there.

Only 1-in-10,000 galaxies fall into the rarest category of all: ring galaxies. With a dense core consisting of old stars, and a circular or elliptical ring consisting of bright, blue, young stars, the first ring was only discovered in 1950: Hoag's object.

The Krakatoa volcanic eruption: Not only did it cause serious damage to the island, the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 created the loudest sound ever reported at 180 dB. It was so loud it was heard 3,000 miles (5,000 km) away. 3. A 1-Ton TNT Bomb: An explosion from this bomb would measure 210 dB.

Sound is a mecanical wave, which means that it needs substance to travel through, such as air or water. In space, there is no air, so sound has nothing to travel through. If someone were to scream in space, the sound wouldn't even leave their mouths.

What sound Cannot be heard by humans? ›

Any frequency below 20 Hz is called infrasound and any frequency above 20 kHz is called ultrasound. These are inaudible sounds. So, we cannot hear inaudible sounds, ultrasound, and infrasound.

The godfather of radio technology decided that no sound ever dies. It just decays beyond the point that we can detect it with our ears.

We conclude that the Earth's hum is generated by the interaction between atmosphere, ocean and sea floor, problably through the conversion of storm energy to oceanic infragravity waves that interact with seafloor topography.

The silence of space was broken by a sudden roaring sound of the river. Was this answer helpful?

Scientists say NASA's most distant exploring spacecraft has recorded what they describe as 'humming' beyond our solar system. A new study suggests the continuous hum, detected by the Voyager 1 spacecraft, is caused by waves existing in interstellar space.

Even with space-enabled fireworks, a burst wouldn't have any thunder. With no atmosphere to propagate sound waves, even the loudest of rockets would be reduced to silence. Have a burning science question you'd like to see answered in our FYI section?

In the beginning, there was an infinitely dense, tiny ball of matter. Then, it all went bang, giving rise to the atoms, molecules, stars and galaxies we see today.

22 billion years in the future is the earliest possible end of the Universe in the Big Rip scenario, assuming a model of dark energy with w = −1.5.

Our universe began with an explosion of space itself - the Big Bang. Starting from extremely high density and temperature, space expanded, the universe cooled, and the simplest elements formed. Gravity gradually drew matter together to form the first stars and the first galaxies.

In 2003, astronomers detected something truly astonishing: acoustic waves propagating through the copious amounts of gas surrounding the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Perseus galaxy cluster, which is now renowned for its eerie wails. We wouldn't be able to hear them at their current pitch.

Does the sun make noise? ›

The Sun does indeed generate sound, in the form of pressure waves. These are produced by huge pockets of hot gas that rise from deep within the Sun, travelling at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour to eventually break through the solar surface.

Scientists have known since 2003 that the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster is associated with some sort of sound, NASA said, because there is so much gas in the surrounding galaxy cluster. Astronomers discovered the pressure waves sent out by the black hole were causing ripples in the hot gas.

The Universe is thought to consist of three types of substance: normal matter, 'dark matter' and 'dark energy'. Normal matter consists of the atoms that make up stars, planets, human beings and every other visible object in the Universe.

But what of the average temperature of space away from the Earth? Believe it or not, astronomers actually know this value quite well: an extreme -270.42 degrees (2.73 degrees above absolute zero).

By the way — the Sun does make actual sound. We just can't hear it because space is a vacuum, so the sound waves don't have a way of getting to us. But if we could hear the constant roar, it'd be pretty loud, even from here.

The lions roaring in the original film weren't lions at all. Real lions don't actually have a very ferocious roar. So instead the movie makers used tiger roars in some scenes. But many of the best roars came from this guy, Frank Welker with the help of his trash can.

A fictional mental disorder, mentioned in several works: "Space Madness", a season 1 episode of the animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show.

The loudest sound in the universe definitely comes from black hole mergers. In this case the “sound” comes out in gravitational waves and not ordinary sound waves.

The planetary sounds we hear, are wavelike vibrations of air molecules occurring within the range of frequencies to which our ears are sensitive, according to the BBC (opens in new tab) .

According to a conservation charity called Save China's Tigers, “Recent research indicates that the tiger is indeed stronger than the lion in terms of physical strength… A tiger is generally physically larger than a lion. Most experts would favor a Siberian and Bengal tiger over an African lion.”

Can a tiger's roar paralyze a human? ›

New research by bioacousticians shows that very low frequency sounds may be the key. A tiger's intimidating roar has the power to paralyze the animal that hears it and that even includes experienced human trainers.

The Roar is so powerful that it can actually kill the user's opponents if they willed it, such as when Scar used it to destroy his own Lion Guard when they refused to help him overthrow Mufasa.

However, as astronaut Chris Hadfield notes, in microgravity, "your eyes make tears but they stick as a liquid ball." In other words, astronauts technically can't cry. Sure, you can get a watery substance to come out of your eyes, but it doesn't fall like it ordinarily does on Earth.

A total of 18 people have lost their lives either while in space or in preparation for a space mission, in four separate incidents. Given the risks involved in space flight, this number is surprisingly … low. The two worst disasters both involved NASA's space shuttle.

After a few months in space, astronauts suffer physiological changes due to radiation and the effects of microgravity. One example of this is bone density loss — without the stress gravity places on our bones, they lose density. Perhaps, future humans might evolve thicker bones to overcome this challenge.

We can't hear it with our ears, but the stars in the sky are performing a concert, one that never stops. The biggest stars make the lowest, deepest sounds, like tubas and double basses. Small stars have high-pitched voices, like celestial flutes.