can sound travel through space why or why not

Why isn’t there any sound in space? An astronomer explains why in space no one can hear you scream

University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

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Chris Impey receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

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How far can sound travel through space, since it’s so empty? Is there an echo in space? – Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington

In space, no one can hear you scream.

You may have heard this saying. It’s the tagline from the famous 1979 science fiction movie “ Alien .” It’s a scary thought, but is it true? The simple answer is yes, no one can hear you scream in space because there is no sound or echo in space.

I’m a professor of astronomy , which means I study space and how it works. Space is silent – for the most part.

How sound works

To understand why there’s no sound in space, first consider how sound works. Sound is a wave of energy that moves through a solid, a liquid or a gas.

Sound is a compression wave . The energy created when your vocal cords vibrate slightly compresses the air in your throat, and the compressed energy travels outward.

A good analogy for sound is a Slinky toy . If you stretch out a Slinky and push hard on one end, a compression wave travels down the Slinky.

When you talk, your vocal cords vibrate. They jostle air molecules in your throat above your vocal cords, which in turn jostle or bump into their neighbors, causing a sound to come out of your mouth.

Sound moves through air the same way it moves through your throat. Air molecules near your mouth bump into their neighbors, which in turn bump into their neighbors, and the sound moves through the air. The sound wave travels quickly , about 760 miles per hour (1,223 kilometers per hour), which is faster than a commercial jet.

Space is a vacuum

So what about in space?

Space is a vacuum, which means it contains almost no matter. The word vacuum comes from the Latin word for empty .

Sound is carried by atoms and molecules. In space, with no atoms or molecules to carry a sound wave, there’s no sound. There’s nothing to get in sound’s way out in space, but there’s nothing to carry it, so it doesn’t travel at all. No sound also means no echo. An echo happens when a sound wave hits a hard, flat surface and bounces back in the direction it came from.

By the way, if you were caught in space outside your spacecraft with no spacesuit, the fact that no one could hear your cry for help is the least of your problems. Any air you still had in your lungs would expand because it was at higher pressure than the vacuum outside. Your lungs would rupture. In a mere 10 to 15 seconds , you’d be unconscious due to a lack of oxygen.

Sound in the solar system

Scientists have wondered how human voices would sound on our nearest neighboring planets, Venus and Mars. This experiment is hypothetical because Mars is usually below freezing , and its atmosphere is thin, unbreathable carbon dioxide . Venus is even worse – its air is hot enough to melt lead, with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere.

On Mars, your voice would sound tinny and hollow, like the sound of a piccolo . On Venus , the pitch of your voice would be much deeper, like the sound of a booming bass guitar. The reason is the thickness of the atmosphere. On Mars the thin air creates a high-pitched sound, and on Venus the thick air creates a low-pitched sound. The team that worked this out simulated other solar system sounds , like a waterfall on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Deep space sounds

While space is a good enough vacuum that normal sound can’t travel through it, it’s actually not a perfect vacuum, and it does have some particles floating through it.

Beyond the Earth and its atmosphere, there are five particles in a typical cubic centimeter – the volume of a sugar cube – that are mostly hydrogen atoms. By contrast, the air you are breathing is 10 billion billion (10 19) times more dense. The density goes down with distance from the Sun, and in the space between stars there are 0.1 particles per cubic centimeter. In vast voids between galaxies , it is a million times lower still – fantastically empty.

The voids of space are kept very hot by radiation from stars. The very spread-out matter found there is in a physical state called a plasma .

A plasma is a gas in which electrons are separated from protons. In a plasma, the physics of sound waves get complicated . Waves travel much faster in this low-density medium, and their wavelength is much longer.

In 2022, NASA released a spectacular example of sound in space . It used X-ray data to make an audible recording that represents the way a massive black hole stirs up plasma in the Perseus galaxy cluster, 250 million light years from Earth. The black hole itself emits no sound, but the diffuse plasma around it carries very long wavelength sound waves.

The natural sound is far too low a frequency for the human ear to hear, 57 octaves below middle C, which is the middle note on a piano and in the middle of the range of sound people can hear. But after raising the frequency to the audible range, the result is chilling – it’s the sound of a black hole growling in deep space.

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Can Humans Hear Sound in Space?

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Is it possible to hear sounds in space? The short answer is "No." Yet, misconceptions about sound in space continue to exist, mostly due to the sound effects used in sci-fi movies and TV shows. How many times have we "heard" the starship Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon whoosh through space? It's so ingrained our ideas about space that people are often surprised to find out that it doesn't work that way. The laws of physics explain that it can't happen, but often enough producers don't really think about them. They're going for "effect."

Plus, it's not just a problem in TV or movies. There are mistaken ideas out there that planets make sounds , for example. What's really happening is that specific processes in their atmospheres (or rings) are sending out emissions that can be picked up by sensitive instruments. In order to understand them, scientists take the emissions and "heterodyne" them (that is, process them) to create something we can "hear" so they can try to analyze what they are. But, the planets themselves aren't making sounds.

The Physics of Sound

It is helpful to understand the physics of sound. Sound travels through the air as waves. When we speak, for example, the vibration of our vocal cords compresses the air around them. The compressed air moves the air around it, which carries the sound waves. Eventually, these compressions reach the ears of a listener, whose brain interprets that activity as sound. If the compressions are high frequency and moving fast, the signal received by the ears is interpreted by the brain as a whistle or a shriek. If they're lower frequency and moving more slowly, the brain interprets it as a drum or a boom or a low voice.

Here's the important thing to remember: without anything to compress, sound waves can't be transmitted. And, guess what? There's no "medium" in the vacuum of space itself that transmits sound waves. There is a chance that sound waves can move through and compress clouds of gas and dust, but we wouldn't be able to hear that sound. It would be too low or too high for our ears to perceive. Of course, if someone were in space without any protection against the vacuum, hearing any sound waves would be the least of their problems. 

Light waves (that aren't radio waves) are different. They do not require the existence of a medium in order to propagate. So light can travel through the vacuum of space unimpeded. This is why we can see distant objects like planets , stars , and galaxies . But, we can't hear any sounds they might make. Our ears are what pick up sound waves, and for a variety of reasons, our unprotected ears aren't going to be in space.

Haven't Probes Picked Up Sounds From the Planets?

This is a bit of a tricky one. NASA, back in the early 90s, released a five-volume set of space sounds. Unfortunately, they were not too specific about how the sounds were made exactly. It turns out the recordings weren't actually of sound coming from those planets. What was picked up were interactions of charged particles in the magnetospheres of the planets; trapped radio waves and other electromagnetic disturbances. Astronomers then took these measurements and converted them into sounds. It is similar to the way that a radio captures the radio waves (which are long-wavelength light waves) from radio stations and converts those signals into sound.

Why Apollo Astronauts Report Sounds Near the Moon

This one is truly strange. According to NASA transcripts of the Apollo moon missions, several of the astronauts reported hearing "music" when orbiting the Moon . It turns out that what they heard was entirely predictable radio frequency interference between the lunar module and the command modules.

The most prominent example of this sound was when the Apollo 15 astronauts were on the far side of the Moon. However, once the orbiting craft was over the near side of the Moon, the warbling stopped. Anyone who has ever played with a radio or done HAM radio or other experiments with radio frequencies would recognize the sounds at once. They were nothing abnormal and they certainly didn't propagate through the vacuum of space. 

Why Movies Have Spacecrafts Making Sounds

Since we know that no one can physically hear sounds in the vacuum of space, the best explanation for sound effects in TV and movies is this: if producers didn't make the rockets roar and the spacecraft go "whoosh", the soundtrack would be boring. And, that's true. It doesn't mean there's sound in space. All it means is that sounds are added to give the scenes a little drama. That's perfectly fine as long as people understand it doesn't happen in reality. 

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How does sound travel through space.

Sound can't be carried in the empty vacuum of space because sound waves need a medium to vibrate through such as air or water. Until recently, we thought that since there is no air in space, that no sound could travel and that is still true but only up to a point. Space isn’t actually completely empty, there are large areas of gas and dust that do have the potential to carry sound waves . However, because the particles are so spread out, the sounds waves they produce are at such a low frequency, humans are incapable of hearing them. 

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Is There Sound in Space?

No, there is no sound in space. At least, not in the way we traditionally understand sound on Earth. The misconception exists largely due to popular culture. Movies and TV shows often depict space battles with roaring rockets and booming exploding stars, but in reality, space is eerily silent.

The reason for this silence lies in the nature of sound itself. Sound is a vibration that travels through a medium, like air or water. For sound waves to propagate, they need particles. Space is a near- perfect vacuum , meaning it has very few particles. Without a medium for these sound waves, there is no sound.

NASA’s “Space Sounds”: Understanding Sonification

Despite the silence of space, there are videos and recordings labeled as “sounds from space” released by NASA. These are not sounds in the traditional sense. Instead, they are products of a process called sonification.

Sonification is the conversion of data into sound. In the context of space, instruments on spacecraft record electromagnetic vibrations or particle interactions. These signals, which are not audible, get converted into sound waves that we can hear. When scientists represent data in an auditory format, it makes certain patterns and anomalies easier to detect.

For instance, the eerie “whistles” and “howls” from recordings of Jupiter or Saturn aren’t sounds that an astronaut could hear. Instead, they are sonifications of radio waves or other electromagnetic phenomena detected by spacecraft.

Gravitational Waves: A Type of Sound in Space

The groundbreaking discovery of gravitational waves adds a new layer to our understanding of “sounds” in space. Detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), these are ripples in spacetime caused by cataclysmic events, like the merging of two black holes.

Now, gravitational waves aren’t sounds in the traditional sense. They don’t propagate through air or water; they literally stretch and compress the fabric of the universe. However, much like the sonifications mentioned earlier, scientists often convert gravitational wave data into sound.

When scientists at LIGO do this, the results are astounding. The final moments of two black holes spiraling into one another can be “heard” as a chirp. In this context, these gravitational waves are akin to the universe’s symphony, a testament to the colossal events unfolding in the cosmos.

Sound in Space: Can You Hear Sound on the Moon?

Similar to the vastness of space, the Moon is also an environment where sound doesn’t propagate in the traditional manner. The Moon has an extremely thin atmosphere or exosphere, which consists of very few particles. Because of this near- vacuum condition, there’s no medium for sound waves to travel through on the Moon’s surface. So, if an astronaut shouts on the Moon without any equipment, the sound doesn’t travel. Another astronaut standing a distance can’t hear it.

How Astronauts Talk on the Moon

Given the lack of an effective medium for sound transmission on the Moon, you might wonder how astronauts communicate with each other. Astronauts wear helmets that are part of a sealed system, connected to their spacesuits. Inside these helmets, there’s an atmosphere – usually a mix of oxygen and other gases – which transmits sound. When an astronaut speaks, the sound waves travel through the air inside the helmet, reaching a microphone. This microphone then converts the sound into an electrical signal, which transmits the signal to the communication systems of other astronauts or to mission control on Earth.

Any vibrations caused by an astronaut’s activities on the Moon are felt through their spacesuit. If an astronaut taps on another’s helmet, the latter “hears” it through the vibrations conducted by their spacesuit and helmet.

The Mysterious Music of Apollo

During the Apollo 10 mission, astronauts reported hearing a strange “whistling” sound, which some described as “outer-space-type music,” while they were orbiting the dark side of the Moon. This event remained classified until 2008 and spurred numerous speculations and theories.

However, the source of this “music” wasn’t extraterrestrial. The sounds were likely radio interference between the lunar module and the command module of the spacecraft. When two radios are close to each other and set to similar frequencies, they produce a whistling sound due to interference. This phenomenon, while eerie in the context of space exploration, is quite common and has a straightforward scientific explanation.

Sound on Mars

Mars has a very thin atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide, with traces of nitrogen and argon. This atmosphere is about 100 times less dense than Earth’s. The atmospheric pressure at the Martian surface averages 0.6% of Earth’s sea level pressure. Such a tenuous atmosphere significantly affects the way sound travels on Mars compared to Earth.

Sound travels through the movement of particles in a medium, be it solid, liquid, or gas. The speed and character of sound waves are influenced by the properties of this medium. Given Mars’ thin atmosphere, sound travels slower than it does on Earth. Additionally, the composition of the Martian atmosphere means that certain frequencies, especially higher ones, get absorbed more quickly and do not travel as far.

In practical terms, this means that sounds on Mars are quieter and muffled than we’re used to. High-pitched noises are particularly hard to hear. If you were to have a conversation on Mars without the aid of communication equipment, voices would sound different, and you’d need to be much closer to the source of a sound to hear it clearly.

Are Wind and Dust Storms Silent?

Mars has frequent wind events and massive dust storms. But would a human standing on the Martian surface hear these?

Wind on Mars, even during a strong gust, sounds very faint. Given the thin atmosphere, there simply aren’t enough particles colliding with one another to produce a sound as loud as on Earth.

The massive dust storms that engulf the entire planet are visually impressive, but are surprisingly quiet. The movement of the fine dust and the thin atmosphere does not generate the roaring sounds we associate with storms on Earth. Instead, you might hear a soft hiss or a very low rumble, but it would be much subtler than one might expect.

• Abbott, R.; et al. (29 June 2021). “Observation of Gravitational Waves from Two Neutron Star–Black Hole Coalescences”. The Astrophysical Journal Letters . 915 (1): L5. doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac082e
• Everest, F. (2001).  The Master Handbook of Acoustics . New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-136097-5.
• Kinsler, L.E.; Frey, A.R.; Coppens, A.B.; Sanders, J.V. (2000).  Fundamentals of Acoustics  (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-84789-5.
• Maurice, S.; et al. (2022). “In situ recording of Mars soundscape:. Nature. 605: 653-658. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04679-0

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Does Sound Travel Faster or Slower in Space?

By quora .com | oct 22, 2018.

Viktor T. Toth :

It is often said that sound doesn’t travel in space. And it is true … in empty space. Sound is pressure waves, that is, propagating changes in pressure. In the absence of pressure, there can be no pressure waves, so there is no sound.

But space is is not completely empty and not completely devoid of pressure. Hence, it carries sound. But not in a manner that would match our everyday experience.

For instance, if you were to put a speaker in interstellar space, its membrane may be moving back and forth, but it would be exceedingly rare for it to hit even a single atom or molecule. Hence, it would fail to transfer any noticeable sound energy to the thin interstellar medium. Even the somewhat denser interplanetary medium is too rarefied for sound to transfer efficiently from human scale objects; this is why astronauts cannot yell to each other during spacewalks. And just as it is impossible to transfer normal sound energy to this medium, it will also not transmit it efficiently, since its atoms and molecules are too far apart, and they just don’t bounce into each other that often. Any “normal” sound is attenuated to nothingness.

However, if you were to make your speaker a million times bigger, and let its membrane move a million times more slowly, it would be able to transfer sound energy more efficiently even to that thin medium. And that energy would propagate in the form of (tiny) changes in the (already very tiny) pressure of the interstellar medium, i.e., it would be sound.

So yes, sound can travel in the intergalactic, interstellar, interplanetary medium, and very, very low frequency sound (many octaves below anything you could possibly hear) plays an important role in the formation of structures (galaxies, solar systems). In fact, this is the mechanism through which a contracting cloud of gas can shed its excess kinetic energy and turn into something compact, such as a star.

How fast do such sounds travel, you ask? Why, there is no set speed. The general rule is that for a so-called perfect fluid (a medium that is characterized by its density and pressure, but has no viscosity or stresses) the square of the speed of sound is the ratio of the medium’s pressure to its energy density. The speed of sound, therefore, can be anything between 0 (for a pressureless medium, which does not carry sound) to the speed of light divided by the square root of three (for a very hot, so-called ultrarelativistic gas).

This post originally appeared on Quora. Click here to view.

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Explainer: Is there sound in space?

Imma Perfetto

Imma Perfetto is a science journalist at Cosmos. She has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Science Communication from the University of Adelaide.

If you’ve seen the famous promotional poster for the 1979 cult science fiction horror film Alien , then you might be under the impression that we can’t hear any sounds in space – let alone screams of abject terror.

So how could the 2018 SCINEMA International Science Film Festival Best Experimental Film, Astroturf , use the strange sounds of recordings from satellites in space?

No, there isn’t sound in space.

Sound doesn’t exist in space, at least not the way we experience it on Earth. 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.

We’re lucky that’s the case, because otherwise the sound of the Sun would roar at an impressive 100 decibels to us on Earth – like hearing a rock concert all day every day. 

Sound travels in what’s known as a longitudinal wave, which causes back-and-forth vibration of the particles in the medium through which it is moving. It propagates through a medium at the speed of sound which varies from substance to substance – generally more slowly through gases, faster in liquids, and fastest in solids.

This back and forth causes regions of high pressure where particles are compressed together (compressions) and regions of low pressure where they are more spread apart (rarefactions). The distance it takes to complete one wave cycle – for instance, the distance between each repeating compression – is what’s known as its wavelength.

The frequency of the wave is measured in hertz (Hz), which is a measure of the number of waves that pass through a fixed point in a second. So, the longer the wavelength the lower the frequency, and vice versa.

Human beings can usually hear sounds within a narrow range of frequencies, usually between 20Hz and 20,000Hz.

So, what are we hearing in Astroturf ?

This short film is just one part of a greater anthology , where independent filmmakers were challenged by the Space Sound Effects (SSFX) project to create short films which incorporated sounds recorded in space by satellites.

Now, although we just reminded ourselves that space is a vacuum, it should be clarified that it isn’t completely empty. For instance, it contains solar wind which streams off the Sun – a constant flow of charged particles ( plasma ) which Earth’s magnetic field protects us from.

The magnetosphere shields us from this ionising radiation and from erosion of the atmosphere by solar wind, but the interactions occurring here are complex and dynamic, and can result in phenomena which disrupt the technology we rely upon, such as electrical grids, global positioning systems (GPS), and weather forecasts.

It’s these plasma waves, electromagnetic vibrations, which can be measured. But the waves fall within the ultra low frequency (ULF) range – with frequencies from fractions of a millihertz to 1Hz – that are undetectable to human hearing. For scale, that’s wavelengths of around 300,000km, and pressure variations so small you’d need an eardrum comparable to the size of Earth to hear them.

In space no one can hear you scream – or can they?

But satellites can still observe them. Scientists took a year’s worth of these recordings, dramatically sped up their playback, and condensed them down to just six minutes of audio at frequencies within the human auditory range. This is a process called sonification – like visualisation but instead with sound – where non-speech audio is used to convey information or data, the most famous application of which is the Geiger counter.

This audio was also used in a citizen science project in which high-school students identified an interesting sound-stamp that, when further explored by the scientists, turned out to be a coronal mass ejection – or solar storm – arriving at Earth. By making the data audible they were able to pinpoint an interesting event which the researchers wouldn’t have otherwise spotted.

Detecting the pitch and frequency of electromagnetic waves has also been used to tell us about the density of gas surrounding the Voyager 1 spacecraft – the space probe launched by NASA in 1977 to study the outer solar system and interstellar space.

From this they were able to determine when Voyager 1 had left the heliosphere – the vast bubble of magnetism surrounding the Sun and planets in the solar system – and moved into the denser gas in the interstellar medium between planetary systems.

Are there other instances of the sonification of space data?

There are a lot of these “ sounds of space ” collected by instruments on various spacecraft, from Juno spacecraft observing the plasma wave signals emanating from Jupiter’s ionosphere, to Cassini’s detection of radio emissions from Saturn (which are well above the audio frequency range and are shifted downward so we can hear them).

Another example is gravitational waves. These stretch and shrink space and can be detected through the distortion, or vibration, of space between masses – but needs to be amplified a billion times to be audible .

Going another route, X-ray, optical and infrared light can be translated into sounds in an ensemble musical piece to represent the position and brightness of light sources in a region of space in the Milky Way.

So, while we can’t hear sound in space as we can on Earth, it’s still possible for us to convert the emissions of space into something the human ear can perceive – and isn’t that much nicer to listen to than a scream, anyway?

Originally published by Cosmos as Explainer: Is there sound in space?

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Physicists Figure Out a Novel Way to Let Sound Travel Through Space

Piezoelectric materials can transmit sound across a vacuum by converting it into an electric field.

Finally, someone can hear you scream in space.

Sound waves can’t travel through the vacuum of space, but a pair of physicists in Finland have found a sneaky way to transmit sound across the airless void, at least for short distances. The method relies on piezoelectric materials to convert sound waves into an electric field to cross the vacuum, then convert the electric field back to sound waves on the other side. They say the technique might be useful in a surprising set of applications here on Earth.

The physicists published their work in the journal Communications Physics .

Screaming Across the Void

It happens to all of us eventually: you’re trapped on a spaceship with a dangerous alien , your whole crew is dead, and you really want to scream — but sound can’t travel through space, so no one could hear you anyway. What’s a sci-fi/horror protagonist to do?

The answer is science. The answer is always science.

The sounds you hear are just vibrations passing through the air around you. A sound’s pitch depends partly on the density of the air that’s vibrating, which means an open-air concert on Mars or Venus would sound very different from one here on Earth. Without air, there’s nothing to vibrate, and therefore no sound. That’s why explosions in space are eerily silent.

But a group of physicists says they’ve found a way around that pesky rule.

Zhuoran Geng and Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä say the trick is to pass sound waves through a special type of material, called a piezoelectric material. These materials include crystals like tourmaline and quartz, certain types of ceramics and polymers, and some semiconductors like zinc oxide. What’s special about piezoelectric materials is how they respond to stress: they produce electrical voltage when they’re pressed, bent, stretched, or vibrated.

So make sure you’re standing right next to a piezoelectric hull plate before you scream. The sound will cause the air to vibrate, and those vibrations will pass through the piezoelectric plate and produce an electric field. Undeterred by vacuum, the electric field will push and pull nearby charged particles — like the ones in a second piezoelectric plate on the other side of a vacuum. In other words, the electric field transmits the vibrations of your scream across a vacuum to another piezoelectric material, which translates them back into sound waves.

“In most cases, the effect is small, but we also found situations where the full energy of the wave jumps across the vacuum with 100 percent efficiency,” say Geng and Maasilta in a recent statement.

There’s a catch, of course. The gap between the two piezoelectric materials has to be smaller than the wavelength of the sound waves being transmitted. For the average human scream , that’s somewhere between 3 and 38 feet (the deepest sounds a human can hear have wavelengths of about 56 feet, and the highest have wavelengths of less than an inch).

In the real world, Geng and Maasilta say their method could be useful in tiny systems that combine electrical and mechanical parts, like some types of sensors, or even to help control temperature (other teams of engineers have experimented for several years with ways to use sound waves to move heat ).

This article was originally published on Aug. 16, 2023

• Space Science

Hear Audio From NASA's Perseverance As It Travels Through Deep Space

The first to be rigged with microphones, the agency's latest Mars rover picked up the subtle sounds of its own inner workings during interplanetary flight.

A microphone aboard NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has recorded the sounds of the spacecraft as it hurtles through interplanetary space. While another mic aboard the rover is intended specifically to listen for the laser zaps of the SuperCam instrument, this one is devoted to capturing some or all of the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence - from the firing of the mortar that releases the parachute to the Mars landing engines kicking in to the rover wheels crunching down onto the surface.

Data for the 60-second audio file was collected on Oct. 19 during an in-flight checkout of the camera and microphone system that will pick up some of the landing drama at Mars' Jezero Crater early next year.

You can listen to the sound file here:

Data for the 60-second audio file was collected on Oct. 19, 2020, during an in-flight checkout of the Perseverance rover's camera and microphone system on the journey to Mars. The subdued whirring is from the rover's heat rejection fluid pump.

Audio Credit:

The subdued whirring you hear is from the rover's heat rejection fluid pump. Located at the rear-starboard side of the Perseverance , the pump is part of the rover's thermal system, which will help maintain operational temperatures for vehicle components on even the coldest of winter nights. It does its job by circulating fluid through a heat exchanger mounted adjacent to the always-toasty Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator and then into a network of tubes spread throughout the rover's chassis.

"With apologies to the person who came up with the slogan for 'Alien,' I guess you could say that in space no one may be able to hear you scream, but they can hear your heat rejection fluid pump," said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for Mars 2020's EDL Camera and Microphone subsystem. "The microphone we included to hear what it's like to land on Mars was actually able to pick up Perseverance's thermal system operating in the vacuum of space through mechanical vibration."

In this annotated illustration, the location of the Perseverance rover's entry, descent, and landing microphone is shown.

Good Vibrations

As any fan of cinematic sci-fi knows, the vacuum of space is a less-than-optimal environment for auditory transmissions. But that doesn't mean sound can't find another way. Sound waves can travel through solid objects. When these mechanical vibrations are registered by an electrical component, they sometimes are turned into an electrical signal. (Anyone listening to music through in-ear headphones may have encountered this phenomenon as a rustling or thumping noise when the headphone cord brushes up against a surface.)

The sound file was processed by DPA Microphones of Alleroed, Denmark, which manufactured the EDL microphone hardware flying on Mars 2020.

"As great as it is to pick up a little audio on spacecraft operations in-flight, the sound file has a more important meaning," Gruel added. "It means that our system is working and ready to try to record some of the sound and fury of a Mars landing."

The EDL microphone was not tailor-made for this mission - or space exploration - and the team does not know quite what to expect from their sound files of landing day.

"Getting sound from landing is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have," said Gruel. "If it doesn't happen, it will not impede the rover's mission of discovery at Jezero Crater one bit. If even a portion of the landing sequence is captured on audio, that would be awesome."

Humanity's most sophisticated rover is traveling to the Red Planet with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter . Together, they will enter the Martian atmosphere on Feb. 18, 2021, at 12:47 p.m. PST (3:47 p.m. EST) and will touchdown at Jezero Crater 410 seconds later.

NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is less than 100 days from landing. Click anywhere on the image to take the spacecraft for a spin, or view the full interactive experience at Eyes on the Solar System .

More About the Mission

A key objective of Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology , including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans .

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance:

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

nasa.gov/perseverance

For more information about NASA's Mars missions, go to:

https://www.nasa.gov/mars

News Media Contact

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011

[email protected]

Grey Hautaluoma / Alana Johnson

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501

[email protected] / [email protected]

Is there sound in space?

Sound travels in waves like light or heat does, but unlike them, sound travels by making molecules vibrate. So, in order for sound to travel, there has to be something with molecules for it to travel through. 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.

What is energy? What are the main differences between a radio station and DS1? What is frequency? What is wavelength? What are radio waves? How does DS1's communications system work?

MSU Extension

Exploring our world: how does sound travel.

Tracy D'Augustino <[email protected]> , Michigan State University Extension - March 22, 2018

Have you ever wondered how sound travels? Help youth ask questions and discover answers about sound by using these activities.

How does sound travel? Does sound travel differently than light? The  Michigan State University Extension  science team’s goal is to increase science literacy across Michigan. One way we increase interest in science is to provide information and ideas for engaging youth in the exploration of their world. Adults can help youth increase their science literacy by encouraging them to   ask questions and discover answers . Exploring sound is just one way to engage youth in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Ask youth how they think sound travels. Does it travel the same way light does? Why or why not? Provide youth with a piece of rope and challenge them to make a wave by moving one end of the rope while the other end is stationary by being tied to a nail or doorknob. Youth should shake one end of the rope making an “S”-shaped wave that travels the length of the rope. Ask youth if the wave travels in the same direction as the movement used to make it.

Tie a colored ribbon at one point in the rope. Notice how the ribbon moves up and down, but not forward and backward on the rope. As they watch the wave, youth should realize that while they are shaking the rope up and down, the wave they create is traveling away, perpendicular to their motion—not up or down. This is a transverse wave; a wave that undulates perpendicular to the direction of propagation. Light waves are transverse waves.

Next, give youth a large spring, like a slinky, and have them stretch it out along a table. Ask them to make a wave without shaking it like they did the rope. Youth should discover they can make a wave in a spring by compressing, or pinching, a couple of the coils together then releasing them. Ask youth if the wave travels in the same direction as the movement used to make it. As they watch the wave, they should realize the wave they are making is traveling in the same direction as the motion they used to make it. This is a compression wave; longitudinal or compression waves undulate in the direction of propagation. Sound waves are compression waves.

While sound and light travel in similar ways as waves, do they travel similarly through the same types of matter? Ask youth to brainstorm and make a list of things sound can travel through. Help ensure they think about the three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. Next, ask them to decide which of the items listed light can travel through. For more information about how sound travels through different materials read , “ Can you hear better underwater? ”

What about in outer space? Do you think light travels through outer space? Why or why not? Do you think sound travels through outer space? Why or why not? Youth should discover that sound waves can travel through more materials than light waves. Light waves or transverse waves can travel through the vacuum of space while sound waves or compression waves require a medium in which to travel.

Ask youth what they think travels faster: sound or light. Why do they think one is faster than the other? Can they recall evidence, something they’ve seen or heard, that makes them think the way they do? Allow time for youth to discuss their ideas and evidence.

Give one youth a metal cookie sheet and stick. Have them take the sheet and stick across a field or down a long driveway, about 100 yards away. Ask the youth with the cookie sheet to hold their arms straight out from their sides, cookie sheet in one hand and stick in the other. Next, bring their hands together over their head, strike the cookie sheet and bring their arms down again. Did the youth see the arms come back down before they heard the sound?

MSU Extension  and the  Michigan 4-H  Youth Development program help to create a community excited about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). 4-H STEM programming seeks to increase science literacy, introducing youth to the experiential learning process that helps them to build problem-solving, critical-thinking and decision-making skills. Youth who participate in 4-H STEM are better equipped with critical life skills necessary for future success.

To learn more about the positive impact of Michigan 4-H youth in  STEM literacy  programs, read our 2016 Impact Report: “ Building Science Literacy and Future STEM Professionals .”

To learn more about MSU Extension, visit the  MSU Extension  website. To learn more about 4-H and Extension opportunities in Alcona County, stop by our Harrisville office at 320 S. State St. Harrisville, MI 48740, or visit us online at our  Alcona County MSU Extension Facebook page  or  Alcona County Extension office  page.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension . For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu . To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters . To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts , or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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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.

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Can you hear sound in space?

October 12, 2023 By Emma Vanstone Leave a Comment

To answer this question, you first need to understand how sound travels on Earth. In very basic terms, sound travels from the source of the sound to our ears by vibrating air molecules. Sound waves need a medium to travel through. Space is a mostly empty vacuum, so there’s no medium for sounds to travel through. In summary, no, you can’t hear sound in space like we can on Earth .

However, scientists use a process called sonification to convert the different waves found in space into sounds.

Listen to the sounds of space

This data sonification of the black hole at the centre of the Perseus Cluster is amazing!

Last Updated on October 12, 2023 by Emma Vanstone

Safety Notice

Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

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Why isn't there any sound in space? An astronomer explains why in space no one can hear you scream

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] .

How far can sound travel through space, since it’s so empty? Is there an echo in space? – Jasmine, age 14, Everson, Washington

In space, no one can hear you scream.

You may have heard this saying. It’s the tagline from the famous 1979 science fiction movie “ Alien .” It’s a scary thought, but is it true? The simple answer is yes, no one can hear you scream in space because there is no sound or echo in space.

I’m a professor of astronomy , which means I study space and how it works. Space is silent – for the most part.

How sound works

To understand why there’s no sound in space, first consider how sound works. Sound is a wave of energy that moves through a solid, a liquid or a gas.

Sound is a compression wave . The energy created when your vocal cords vibrate slightly compresses the air in your throat, and the compressed energy travels outward.

A good analogy for sound is a Slinky toy . If you stretch out a Slinky and push hard on one end, a compression wave travels down the Slinky.

When you talk, your vocal cords vibrate. They jostle air molecules in your throat above your vocal cords, which in turn jostle or bump into their neighbors, causing a sound to come out of your mouth.

Sound moves through air the same way it moves through your throat. Air molecules near your mouth bump into their neighbors, which in turn bump into their neighbors, and the sound moves through the air. The sound wave travels quickly , about 760 miles per hour (1,223 kilometers per hour), which is faster than a commercial jet.

Space is a vacuum

So what about in space?

Space is a vacuum, which means it contains almost no matter. The word vacuum comes from the Latin word for empty .

Sound is carried by atoms and molecules. In space, with no atoms or molecules to carry a sound wave, there’s no sound. There’s nothing to get in sound’s way out in space, but there’s nothing to carry it, so it doesn’t travel at all. No sound also means no echo. An echo happens when a sound wave hits a hard, flat surface and bounces back in the direction it came from.

By the way, if you were caught in space outside your spacecraft with no spacesuit, the fact that no one could hear your cry for help is the least of your problems. Any air you still had in your lungs would expand because it was at higher pressure than the vacuum outside. Your lungs would rupture. In a mere 10 to 15 seconds , you’d be unconscious due to a lack of oxygen.

Sound in the solar system

Scientists have wondered how human voices would sound on our nearest neighboring planets, Venus and Mars. This experiment is hypothetical because Mars is usually below freezing , and its atmosphere is thin, unbreathable carbon dioxide . Venus is even worse – its air is hot enough to melt lead, with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere.

On Mars, your voice would sound tinny and hollow, like the sound of a piccolo . On Venus , the pitch of your voice would be much deeper, like the sound of a booming bass guitar. The reason is the thickness of the atmosphere. On Mars the thin air creates a high-pitched sound, and on Venus the thick air creates a low-pitched sound. The team that worked this out simulated other solar system sounds , like a waterfall on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Deep space sounds

While space is a good enough vacuum that normal sound can’t travel through it, it’s actually not a perfect vacuum, and it does have some particles floating through it.

Beyond the Earth and its atmosphere, there are five particles in a typical cubic centimeter – the volume of a sugar cube – that are mostly hydrogen atoms. By contrast, the air you are breathing is 10 billion billion (10 19) times more dense. The density goes down with distance from the Sun, and in the space between stars there are 0.1 particles per cubic centimeter. In vast voids between galaxies , it is a million times lower still – fantastically empty.

The voids of space are kept very hot by radiation from stars. The very spread-out matter found there is in a physical state called a plasma .

A plasma is a gas in which electrons are separated from protons. In a plasma, the physics of sound waves get complicated . Waves travel much faster in this low-density medium, and their wavelength is much longer.

In 2022, NASA released a spectacular example of sound in space . It used X-ray data to make an audible recording that represents the way a massive black hole stirs up plasma in the Perseus galaxy cluster, 250 million light years from Earth. The black hole itself emits no sound, but the diffuse plasma around it carries very long wavelength sound waves.

The natural sound is far too low a frequency for the human ear to hear, 57 octaves below middle C, which is the middle note on a piano and in the middle of the range of sound people can hear. But after raising the frequency to the audible range, the result is chilling – it’s the sound of a black hole growling in deep space.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to [email protected] . Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article is republished from The Conversation , a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Chris Impey , University of Arizona .

What happens if someone dies in space?

How do astronomers know the age of the planets and stars?

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Turns out you can transmit sound in a vacuum, just not very far

For the first time, researchers were able to transmit, or "tunnel," sound waves across extremely small distances between two crystals in a vacuum.

For the first time, scientists have shown that sound can travel through the emptiness of a vacuum. However, the rule-breaking trick requires specific circumstances and can only be carried out over extremely small distances.

The iconic tagline of the 1979 sci-fi film "Alien" tells us that "in space no one can hear you scream." This was based on the fact that space is a vacuum, a region devoid of any particles. Sound waves travel by vibrating through the particles of a medium, such as air or water, from a source to a receiver. So in a vacuum, there is no travel medium. (Outer space is not actually a total vacuum because it does contain small amounts of gas, plasma and other particles. But this matter is surrounded by vast swathes of emptiness.)

But in a new study, published July 14 in the journal Communications Physics , researchers showed that sound can move through a vacuum. Unfortunately for space explorers being hunted by aliens, this does not extend to human screams.

In the new experiment, researchers transmitted, or "tunneled," sound waves across a vacuum between two zinc oxide crystals by transforming the vibrating waves into ripples within an electric field between the objects.

Related: Eerie sounds triggered by plasma waves hitting Earth's magnetic field captured in new NASA sound clip

A zinc oxide crystal is a piezoelectric material, which means that when force or heat is applied to it, the material produces an electrical charge. Therefore, when sound is applied to one of these crystals, it creates an electrical charge that disrupts nearby electric fields. If the crystal shares an electric field with another crystal, then the magnetic disruption can travel from one to the other across a vacuum. The disruptions mirror the frequency of the sound waves, so the receiving crystal can turn the disruption back into a sound on the other side of the vacuum.

However, the disruptions cannot travel a distance greater than the wavelength of a single sound wave. In theory, this works with any sound no matter how small the wavelength of that sound is, as long as the gap between the crystals is small enough. 

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The method is not always reliable. In a large percentage of the experiments, the sound was not perfectly transmitted between the two crystals: parts of the wave were warped, or reflected, as it passed through the electric field, the researchers found. However, occasionally the piezoelectric crystals perfectly transmitted the entire sound wave.

— Why is space a vacuum?

— What would happen to the human body in the vacuum of space?

— What if the speed of sound were as fast as the speed of light?  

"In most cases the effect [sound transmitted] is small, but we also found situations, where the full energy of the wave jumps across the vacuum with 100 % efficiency, without any reflections," study co-author Ilari Maasilta , a material physicist at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, said in a statement .

The finding could one day help develop microelectromechanical components, like those found in smartphones and other technology, the researchers said. 

Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior, evolution and paleontology. His feature on the upcoming solar maximum was shortlisted in the "top scoop" category at the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence in 2023. 

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• skynr13 I'm not sure if Outer Space is completely devoid of sound even over great distances. If you could hear and speak using cosmic rays, neutrinos or photons then maybe those particle waves could be used to hear sound over great distances in the vacuum of Outer Space! Reply
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Can Sound Travel Through Empty Space

Table of Contents:

Can Humans Hear Sound in Space? . Sound doesn’t move through space because there are no molecules to convey it. So, why did Apollo astronauts report hearing music when orbiting the Moon?

Voyager and Cassini spacecraft spotted spokes in Saturn’s rings. Spokes are the ghostly radial markings discovered in the rings by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft 25 years ago. When observed using a radio astronomy receiver, the process of the spokes’ rotation gave off radio emissions, which astronomers processed to create ghostly “sounds”, although no such sound was heard in space.

Video advice: Why sound cannot travel in space

The reason why you cannot hear a thing in space is since there is no air, and without air, there are no waves, which mean without air there are no means sound waves could be made. It is like a vortex as soon as you say somewhat it is like, it will just disappear into the surrounding emptiness around you.

Is it possible to hear sounds in space? The short answer is “No. ” Yet, misconceptions about sound in space continue to exist, mostly due to the sound effects used in sci-fi movies and TV shows. How many times have we “heard” the starship Enterprise or the Millennium Falcon whoosh through space? It’s so ingrained our ideas about space that people are often surprised to find out that it doesn’t work that way. The laws of physics explain that it can’t happen, but often enough producers don’t really think about them. They’re going for “effect.

Can sound travel through empty space why? – 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. Radio is a form of electromagnetic radiation just like light and can therefore travel through the vacuum of space just fine.

“Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. ” “Light in a vacuum always travels at the same speed. ” Those additional three words in a vacuum are very important. A vacuum is a region with no matter in it. This vacuum speed of light, c, is what the statements from relativity describe.

Sound Can Travel Through Space After All

It’s a fact well-known enough to be the tagline to the 1979 sci-fi horror blockbuster Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Or to put it another way, sound can’t be carried in the empty vacuum of space – there just aren’t any molecules for t.

It goes without saying well-known enough is the tagline towards the 1979 sci-fi horror blockbuster Alien: “Wide, no-one can hear you scream. ” In order to place it one other way, seem can not be transported within the empty vacuum of space – there just are not any molecules for that audio vibrations to maneuver through. Well, that maybe true: only up to and including point.

As it turns out, space isn’t a complete and empty void, though large swathes of it are. The interstellar gas and dust left behind by old stars and sometimes used to create new ones does have the potential to carry sound waves – we just aren’t able to listen to them. The particles are so spread out, and the resulting sound waves are of such a low frequency, that they’re beyond the capabilities of human hearing. As Kiona Smith-Strickland explains at Gizmodo, sounds travel as molecules bump into each other, the same way that ripples spread out when you drop a stone into a pond: as the ripples get farther and farther away, the sound gradually loses its force, which is why we can only hear sounds generated near to us. As a sound wave passes, it causes oscillations in the air pressure, and the time between these oscillations represents the frequency of the sound (measured in Hertz); the distance between the oscillating peaks is the wavelength. If the distance between the air particles is greater than this wavelength, the sound can’t bridge the gap and the ‘ripples’ stop.

Many students believe sound can travel through empty space – Light, Sound and Waves.

• Diagnostic Resources
• How are we able to hear? (5-11)
• What travels and what doesn’t travel? (11-14)
• Sounds in solids and gases (14-16)

Sound in Space?

This demo explores the possibility of sound in space and communications to astronauts.

Once the lighted matches are dropped in to the bottle and also the bottle is sealed, the fireplace melts away the oxygen that is incorporated in the bottle. Without the majority of the bottle’s original oxygen, an incomplete although imperfect vacuum forms within the bottle. Due to this vacuum, you can’t hear the bell jingle before you allow air to go in the bottle.

• What You Need
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• What Changes . . .

In the vacuum of space, there are no (or very, very few) particles to vibrate, so sound cannot travel through this medium. You might think this presents a communications conundrum for NASA: How can we talk to astronauts who are orbiting earth? The solution is radio waves. Radio waves travel perfectly fine through a vacuum because they are a type of electromagnetic wave (light), and electromagnetic waves do not need a medium to travel through. Similarly, we can still see light emitted from the sun even though a vacuum stands between the sun and earth.

Video advice: Can You Hear Sound in Space?

If space is a vacuum, is it possible to hear sound in it? Trace is here to discuss why sound travels differently in space.

Sound as a Mechanical Wave

A sound wave is a mechanical wave that propagates along or through a medium by particle-to-particle interaction. As a mechanical wave, sound requires a medium in order to move from its source to a distant location. Sound cannot travel through a region of space that is void of matter (i.e., a vacuum).

Seem and music are areas of our everyday physical experience. Just like humans have eyes for that recognition of sunshine and color, therefore we are outfitted with ears for that recognition of seem. We rarely take time to ponder the options and behaviors of seem and also the mechanisms through which sounds are created, propagated, and detected. The foundation to have an knowledge of seem, music and hearing may be the physics of waves. Seem is really a wave that’s produced by vibrating objects and propagated via a medium in one place to another. Within this unit, we’ll investigate nature, qualities and behaviors of seem waves and apply fundamental wave concepts towards an awareness of music.

The Sound of Space: Why The Cosmos Isn’t As Quiet As You’d Think

Visit SoundCloud to share what you think space may sound like.

This short article was initially printed around the Conversation. Browse the original article. We all know that there’s seem on planets and moons within the solar system—places where there is a medium by which seem waves could be transmitted, just like an atmosphere or perhaps an sea. What about empty space? You might have learned for sure that space is silent, maybe from your teacher or with the marketing from the movie Alien—’In space, no-one can hear you scream. ‘ The most popular reason behind this really is that space is really a vacuum and thus there is no medium for seem to visit through. However that is not right. Space isn’t completely empty—there really are a couple of particles and seem waves going swimming. Actually, seem waves within the area surrounding our planet are important to the ongoing technological existence. Additionally they seem pretty weird!

What does empty space sound like? We need your help to find out

Listen to some weird space sounds and help identify crunches, whistles and other odd effects. It could help save our satellites.

We can’t hear these magnetosonic waves wide. This is because pressure variations are extremely small at -100dB seem pressure level (a persons hearing threshold is all about +60dB). Actually, you’d require an eardrum similar to how big our planet to listen to them. Their ultra-low frequencies will also be way below what we should could hear. Therefore if we can’t hear them, so why do we love them about the subject?

Recording the inaudible

We know that there is sound on planets and moons in the solar system – places where there’s a medium through which sound waves can be transmitted, such as an atmosphere or an ocean. But what about empty space? You may have been told definitively that space is silent, maybe by your teacher or through the marketing of the movie Alien – “In space no one can hear you scream”. The common explanation for this is that space is a vacuum and so there’s no medium for sound to travel through.

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Sound can’t be carried in the empty vacuum of space because sound waves need a medium to vibrate through such as air or water. Until recently, we thought that since there is no air in space, that no sound could travel and that is still true but only up to a point. Space isn’t actually completely empty, there are large areas of gas and dust that do have the potential to carry sound waves. However, because the particles are so spread out, the sounds waves they produce are at such a low frequency, humans are incapable of hearing them.

Does sound travel faster in space?

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. If you are sitting in a space ship and another space ship explodes, you would hear nothing. Exploding bombs, crashing asteroids, supernovas, and burning planets would similarly be silent in space. In a space ship, you could of course hear the other passengers because your ship is filled with air. Additionally, a living human will always be able to hear himself talk, breath, and circulate blood, because the air in his space suit which sustains his life also transmits sound. But two astronauts in space suits floating around in space will not be able to talk to each other directly no matter how hard they yell, even if they are only inches away. Their inability to talk directly is not caused by their helmets getting in the way, but is rather caused by the vacuum of space not carrying sound at all. That is why space suits are equipped with two-way radio communicators.

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What does empty space sound like?

You may have been told definitively that space is silent , maybe by your teacher or through the marketing of the movie Alien – “In space no one can hear you scream”. The common explanation for this is that space is a vacuum and so there's no medium for sound to travel through.

Can you have sound without air?

No, Sound can't be carried in the empty vacuum of space because sound waves need a medium to vibrate through such as air or water.

How fast does sound travel in empty space?

The speed of sound in a vacuum is zero meters per second , as sound cannot travel in a vacuum. Sound is a wave, which means it spreads through the vibration of particles in a medium, such as water or air. Since a vacuum is empty space, there is no medium for the sound to travel through.

Do sound waves travel in a vacuum?

Sound waves cannot travel in the vacuum of space because there is no medium to transmit these mechanical waves. Classical waves transfer energy without transporting matter through the medium.

Can you burp fart in space?

Hadfield confirmed: There is no burping in space . The reasons why are kind of gross. On Earth, gravity pulls liquids and solids to down to the bottom of our digestive systems, while gases stay up top and get forced back up the esophagus as a burp. That can't happen in space.

Related Articles:

• Can Sound Travel Through Space
• A Wave That Can Travel Through Empty Space
• How Does Sound Travel Science Project
• Why Is There No Sound In Outer Space
• Who Said The Atom Is Mostly Empty Space
• What To Do With Empty Space In Bathroom

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