is there sound in space? if yes, can it be heard from inside the shuttle?

presumable I would say yes, there is. so if that were the case, then I guess sound waves don't rely on gravity...right? hm.

I've seen threads in the past that play audio of space, at least that's what was conjured. but is there really sounds out there? and do they go on forever or do they at some point 'dissolve'? I would think that sound relies on bouncing of one object the another or something of that sort I think I learned, although I may be wrong.

sooo audible sound(that humans can here) in space? yes or no? can the sound of space be heard within the shuttle?

Originally posted by agent violet
presumable I would say yes, there is.

Did you never hear the promotional slogan for Alien?

The one that says "In space, no one can hear you scream"?

You can't hear anything in space because there's nothing for the sound waves to bounce off, last i heard...

Originally posted by agent violet

I've seen threads in the past that play audio of space, at least that's what was conjured.

If it's radiowaves, sure.

Which threads are you talking about, violet?

Sound propagates through air as a pressure wave. There is no air in space, space is a vacuum, so there is no sound in space.

Likely, what you've heard as "sounds" in space are radio signals, generated by space-born objects, which have been received and converted to audible sounds.

I remember the one thread with 3-4 NASA fraud videos that got real popular had a video where astronauts were talking about hearing "outer-spacey" music when on the other side of the moon. The video's creator went on to say that after speaking with someone about it the sound was really more like a church choir. Spooky stuff.

Originally posted by BrokenVisage
I remember the one thread with 3-4 NASA fraud videos that got real popular had a video where astronauts were talking about hearing "outer-spacey" music when on the other side of the moon. The video's creator went on to say that after speaking with someone about it the sound was really more like a church choir. Spooky stuff.

Was that something about islam too? I heard something similar.

i read somewhere on yahoo that NASA broad casted the Beatles song- "across the universe" over some galaxy...look it up

Sound cannot travel in vacuum. Sound requires some kind of physical medium to travel, and outer space is too empty. Yes, there are a few molecules or little rocks or dust or whatever, but it isn't enough for sound to travel.

Humans in the space shuttle wouldn't be able to hear anything happening in outer space. The furthest away they could hear would be if something bumped into the outside shuttle wall, because the sound would then travel through the shuttle to their ears.

Assuming you could somehow survive in the vacuum naked, and you were even a meter away from the shuttle when something crashed into it, you would hear nothing.

Sound and gravity are independent, as you thought.

If any video shows sound in outer space, they are either dubbing in the sound, or the sound is actually inside, or something like that, since it is impossible otherwise. That applies to any sound frequency, not just those that humans can hear. No sound, period, end of story.

I think that hit all the points.

I think I know which videos you are referring to because I have seen/heard them myself. I listened to the sounds of Saturn, Jupiter, one of Jupiter's (I think) moons, a dark hole, etc..

They aren't actual sounds like the kind you hear outside your bedroom window. They are magnetic vibrations picked up by recording instruments inside of shuttles.

I don't remember the exact link, but you were able to find those recordings (minus the tacky still image as found on YouTube) on the official NASA website.

You do have to remember that sound is only a side effect of an energy release in some form.

Since energy can travel in everything, I'd think there can be sound in space, once the energy collides with something, it will make it vibrate. And if that something is the space station, it can become audible.

Nice extension of the principle there "TheMatrix".

I have to agree with you, we use a very narrow definition of sound here on Earth. We can hear via Bone Conduction which does not require the passage of vibration through air.

When you hear sound from your neighbours house, it doesn't travel all the way trough air either does it?

It passes trough windows and walls and then as Cyberbian said, trough the eardrum membrane then via bone conduction on to the nerves registering it as electrical signals that are sent to the brain.

It goes from an energy release which creates the vibration all the way back into electrical energy that gets interpreted by the brain.

Sound is just the brains interpretation of energy in transit.

But, if you were in a magnetic suit, and the walls were magnetic and both repeled, (so you would be in the middle of the room, floating) and the room was a total vacuum. Would you be able to hear the sound from the neighbor's house then?

reply to post by Cyberbian


Yeah, sound just has to travel through something. It doesn't have to be air, as you pointed out with the bone example. It can be metal, wood, bone, water, whatever. It just can't be empty space. Anything with atoms will do :p

reply to post by agent violet


I think this is a very good question, "is there sound in space". To say that space is an absolute void (as science does) is incorrect. IMO no scientific theory can be an absolute. We know that sound here on Earth propagates through a medium-ie; air, liquid and solid, in the form of waves. The more dense the medium the faster the sound waves travel and the higher the pitch it will be. The speed of sound is much faster under water then it is in air and even more so though a solid.

What about space? While it's true that no one could hear you scream in space nor would you hear explosions there is some sound...sort of. The Cassini space craft recorded radio signals coming from the planets and it seems that all the planets and maybe even all their moons emit a radio signal. Is it true that they are within the same range of human hearing (20 to 20,000 cycles per sec.)?

Listen to Jupiter.
Neptune, Uranus, some of their moons and even Earth emit radio waves. I think Saturn is the most interesting but there is a lot more; like the sun and it's solar wind, bow shock, terminal shock, other stars, nebula and pulsars.

Here is a link to a few more.

This all fascinates me and I enjoy listening to these sounds. If anyone has information that helps explain this or more links please add them, I would love to better understand this phenomena.



[edit on 7/20/2008 by Devino]

According to the Apollo 10 boys...you can, at least if your on the dark side of the moon (Pink Floyd anyone..?)

04 06 13 02 LMP That music even sounds outer-spaeey, doesn't it?
You hear that? That whistling sound?
04 06 13 06 CDR Yes.
04 06 13 07 _4P Who0ooooo. Say your - -
04 06 13 12 CMP Did you hear that whistling sound, too?
04 06 13 14 _P Yes. Sounds like - you know, outer-space-type
music.
04 06 13 18 _4P I wonder what it is

Page 198:
04 06 17 58 LMP Boy, that sure is weird music.
04 06 18 01 CMP We're going to have to find out about that.
Nobody will believe us.
04 06 ].8 07 LMP Yes. It's a whistling, you know, like an outerspace-type thing.
04 06 18 10 CMP Yes .... VHF-A ...
Page 240:
04 07 39 33 CMP Roger.
04 07 39 47 CDR Those numbers again, Gene-o, are what?
04 07 39 57 IMP I'll put mine on, Tom.
04 07 40 51 LMP I tell you, John, that music is really weird.
04 07 40 55 CMP ... Think we're going to get it on the front side?
04 07 40 58 _ I know it. You composed something, huh?
04 07 41 03 _P I don't know, man.
04 07 41 05 LMP No one will believe us. Okay, Tom, we're set until 35 minutes - 35 seconds. And we're at 4 minutes ·
and 35 from the burn.

NASA/JPL PDF read for yourself...

Is it possible....? Is it possible that we sent a man to the moon? Mabey...

[edit on 7/20/2008 by 1nL1ghtened]

[edit on 7/20/2008 by 1nL1ghtened]

Originally posted by 1nL1ghtened
According to the Apollo 10 boys...you can, at least if your on the dark side of the moon (Pink Floyd anyone..?)

That is very interesting, I have read this transcript before and have also heard some of the audio of the astronauts talking about it. Has NASA or anyone else made any comments about this? Has there been any studies or explanations to what this might be? Did they try to record the sounds at least?

Assuming this was a radio signal that was picked up by the astronauts receivers you would think it could be heard on the recorded audio version. It should have been recorded as everything they say was. I have wondered if this sound was heard because of the nature of their space crafts (there were 2 separated at the time) and the pressurized air inside.

Originally posted by Devino
Is it true that they are within the same range of human hearing (20 to 20,000 cycles per sec.)?

Unfortunately, the answer is 'no':

The 'sounds' are actually patterns detected in the magnetic field between Jupiter and the Sun, recorded by Cassini as low-frequency radio waves, and converted into sound wave frequencies so they can be heard.

www.abc.net.au...

Fascinating sounds, but artificial sounds. What you're hearing is the radio waves converted into sound wave frequencies (I believe there was a NASA page that explained this better, but I can't find it now - I'll post it if I manage to track it down). The point is, if you somehow managed to ride on top of Cassini while it passed Jupiter, you wouldn't be hearing these sounds with your ears.

But that JPL log is damn interesting.

It seems to me like a few are confused on this point, so I'll mention it. Sound waves and radio waves are two fundamentally different phenomena. They aren't just different frequencies. Sounds are vibrations, and need something to vibrate against. Radio waves are electromagnetic, and can propagate even in vacuum.