Hearing Black Hole Winds

<p dir="ltr">This is a press-release audio-visual associated with the article: <br><br>"Inspecting spectra with sound: proof-of-concept & extension to datacubes", J. Trayford, C.M. Harrison, R.C. Hinz, M. Kavanagh Blatt, S. Dougherty, and A. Girdhar, <i>RASTI, 2, 387 (2023),</i><br><br>The original press release is here: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2023/06/sonification/</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">The audio-visual is designed to show how using a new technique, astronomers can now use their ears to understand how the gas is moving inside galaxies. In this case we are listening to a specific frequency emitted by Hydrogen, which is shifted by the high-speed motion of the gas. In the central parts the sound is very “windy”, due to a powerful supermassive black hole causing a strong wind. The rest of the gas is rotating, which sounds like higher notes for the parts moving away from and lower notes for the parts moving towards us. </p><p dir="ltr">The sonification was produced using the code 'STRAUSS' (Trayford & Harrison, 28th Proceedings of the International Community of Auditory Displays (ICAD2023), p249-256, <i>2023</i>), which is available on github: https://github.com/james-trayford/strauss<br><br>The specific technique used is described in Trayford et al., <i>RASTI, 2, 387 (2023).</i></p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>