Stephan’s Quintet Sonifications

New sonifications map a composite image of a compact group of galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet. The image is based on data collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, James Webb Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope. Unique notes and instruments have been assigned to capture these interacting galaxies and their dance floor-like environment.

The sonification scans the image from top to bottom. The new sounds were also adapted to a video, allowing sighted viewers to watch as a horizontal line moves down the frame, as if the line is plucking the notes that represent the quintet and its surroundings.

The soundtrack begins with the intensive pattering of notes by a synthetic glass marimba, denoting the numerous background galaxies and foreground stars that are present at the top of the image. The stars that have diffraction spikes, which look brighter in this image compared to stars without, are represented through crash cymbals and higher plinks of notes.

The five galaxies were assigned smoothly-changing synthetic tones, and the X-rays observed by Chandra are heard through a more synthetic string-type of sound. After scanning the four galaxies that appear close together in 2D, the synthetic glass marimba has a short solo moment before the fifth and final galaxy is explored through sound. With the star- and galaxy-filled sky, the sonification ends similar to how it begins: the intensive pattering of the marimba as the horizontal line reaches the bottom of the image.

The separate videos available for download explore the individual tunes of data that have been collected by different telescopes, as well as combinations of select layers to create a harmonizing experience.

“Stephan’s Quintet Composite,” represents the full auditory experience of the galaxy group. “X-ray Only” is a solo track featuring just the X-ray observations collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, while the “Infrared Only” omits the X-rays from the symphony-like audio track. “Quintet Only” plays the notes that represent the galaxy quintet, and “Background and Foreground Only” reveals the notes that represent the background galaxies and foreground stars. Listen to all of the tracks for a more complex understanding of how sounds were adapted to this multi-wavelength image of Stephan’s Quintet.

This sonification does not represent sounds recorded in space. Scientists mapped the telescopes’ data to sound, intentionally selecting the instruments and composing the music to accurately represent the scientific information.

Image Data

X-ray (Chandra) data: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (Spitzer) data: NASA/JPL-Caltech; IR (Webb) data: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI