A Deep Voice From Deep Space

Washington Post ^ | September 10, 2003 | Guy Gugliotta

[tang-soo]

Astronomers for the first time have detected sound waves emanating from a supermassive black hole, researchers said yesterday. With a frequency of 10 million years, the wave is the deepest "note" ever found in the universe -- a B-flat that is 57 octaves below a piano's middle C.

Researchers said heat generated by the sound wave may explain why gases moving within clusters of galaxies do not cool down to form more stars -- an anomaly that has puzzled astrophysicists for years.

[CO_dreamer]

I knew it wasn't a perfect vacuum, but I guess I didn't realize it was imperfect enough to allow sounds to travel millions of light years. I guess anything is possible with sensitive enough detectors or a loud enough noise.

[JRjr]

Probably the guy who was with the Oak Ridge Boys.

[Mr. William]

This is really for everyone not just Izzy Dunne :-) Science catching up with the Bible? Not bloody likely, ever! :-) The Bible is a very old and unchanging compendium of opinion. It is inflexible and fixed as surely as a photograph from the American Civil War is fixed or an Egyptian hieroglyph is fixed upon the wall of an ancient tomb. The Bible is an archeological work. Those who choose to believe the Bible is more than ancient speculation and wishful thinking, will never change their opinion because for them it is all a matter of faith in that arcane philosophical position.

Science on the other hand is dynamic, flexible, moving, in a neverending process of change as new information is uncovered. I do not say 'discovered', because the information is all out there in the Universe, regardless of whether or not we are aware of it.

Black holes were still only theoretical less then 10 years ago, now they are confirmed as real and are known to be the central feature of most if not all galaxies. They are also found in locations other then galacic centers. A black hole 'singing' a continuous B-flat monotone in any octave is certainly a new wrinkle in the cosmological fabric, to be sure, but how that relates to anything Biblical is a deeper mystery to me than the phenomenon itself :-)

[wideminded]

Go down 57 octaves, and the wavelength is 2^57 times middle C.

The frequency of the Bb below middle C is about 233 Hz. That is about 7.3 x 10 ^9 cycles per year. 2^57 is about 1.44 x 10^17. So each cycle of this "sound" last about 10 million years.

[Graybeard58]

"XM radio doesn't receive sound, it receives radio waves and translates them into sound".


I HEARD that!

[Graybeard58]

"Astronomers for the first time have detected sound waves emanating from a supermassive black hole"

When I read that I thought I was about to read another article about Cynthia McKinney.

[wideminded]

So each cycle of this "sound" last about 10 million years.

Oops, 20 million.

[Bacon Man]

Just because a note is below the range of a piano keyboard or even human hearing doesn't mean it can't exist.
True, but one shouldn't call this "sound".

Actually I think using a sound scale is the best way to describe how low the frequency is. If you were to describe it in hertz, it would be a very very tiny fraction of 1 hz, which most people including me, would probably just gloss over.

[Andonius_99]

LUUUUKE...I AM YOUR FATHER...:-)

[4mycountry]

Did it say, "All your base are belong to us"?

[sticker]

Space burped? Must be the Krystal Chili it had(Southern reference)

[Itzlzha]

Gotta have a long left arm to hit that note.

LOL

It's the infamous "Brown Note" from South Park!

Evereybody! Have a change of UNDERWEAR ready!!!!

[null and void]

Bingo.

[Itzlzha]

Black holes were still only theoretical less then 10 years ago, now they are confirmed as real and are known to be the central feature of most if not all galaxies.

Black Holes are the places where G_d was dividing by zero...

[Skooz]

One of my favorite all-time scriptures.

[curmudgeonII]

I think he means 57 and two twelfths octaves, but he rounded off...

In which case he ought to have said 57 and some obscure fraction off. But I know where he's coming from. As I've grown older I, also, have tended to round [in this case] up.

[mtbopfuyn]

I say it's more of an A-sharp than a B-flat.

[Skooz]

As I've grown older I, also, have tended to round.

Ditto. I think it's the lack of excercise.

[Skooz]

That would be a C#.

[Consort]

It was an echo from a Throat Singers of Tuva concert held in Siberia recently.