mark61
03-07-04, 12:21
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Astronomers have recaptured the sounds of the early Universe showing it was born not with a bang but a quiet whisper that became a dull roar.
Mark Whittle of the University of Virginia has analysed the so-called background radiation that was born 400,000 years after the Big Bang.
Ripples in the radiation are like sound waves bouncing through the cosmos.
Over the first million years the music of the cosmos changed from a bright major chord to a sombre minor one.
Below human hearing
"It really is a very obvious thing to do," Professor Whittle told BBC News Online. "I was a little surprised that someone had not done it before."
He took the latest data about the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) which comes from an era just after the Big Bang.
Listening to it I have to say that the Universe is a lousy musical instrument
They show ripples in the CMB which are subtle variations in the density of matter which can, in one sense, be thought of as sound waves.
These cosmic sound waves are 30,000 light-years wide and are 55 octaves below what humans can hear.
But when they are shifted to regions of the audible spectrum, the cry from the birth of the cosmos can be heard.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3832711.stm
The first million years
compressed to five seconds (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/audio/40305000/rm/_40305679_spacenoisetwo.ram)
The sound of the universe when 400,000 years old (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/audio/40305000/rm/_40305671_spacenoiseone.ram)
BBC News Online science editor
Astronomers have recaptured the sounds of the early Universe showing it was born not with a bang but a quiet whisper that became a dull roar.
Mark Whittle of the University of Virginia has analysed the so-called background radiation that was born 400,000 years after the Big Bang.
Ripples in the radiation are like sound waves bouncing through the cosmos.
Over the first million years the music of the cosmos changed from a bright major chord to a sombre minor one.
Below human hearing
"It really is a very obvious thing to do," Professor Whittle told BBC News Online. "I was a little surprised that someone had not done it before."
He took the latest data about the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) which comes from an era just after the Big Bang.
Listening to it I have to say that the Universe is a lousy musical instrument
They show ripples in the CMB which are subtle variations in the density of matter which can, in one sense, be thought of as sound waves.
These cosmic sound waves are 30,000 light-years wide and are 55 octaves below what humans can hear.
But when they are shifted to regions of the audible spectrum, the cry from the birth of the cosmos can be heard.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3832711.stm
The first million years
compressed to five seconds (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/audio/40305000/rm/_40305679_spacenoisetwo.ram)
The sound of the universe when 400,000 years old (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/audio/40305000/rm/_40305671_spacenoiseone.ram)