Hear the sounds of the Sun

NASA scientists listen to the low-frequency pulsing hum of the Sun to gain insight into the star's atmosphere over time. The raw data comes from the ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) launched back in 1995. Researchers from Stanford Experimental Physics Lab then process and filter the data and speed it up "a factor 42,000 to bring it into the audible human-hearing range."

From NASA:

"Waves are traveling and bouncing around inside the Sun, and if your eyes were sensitive enough they could actually see this," said Alex Young, associate director for science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland...

Data from SOHO, sonified by the Stanford Experimental Physics Lab, captures the Sun's natural vibrations and provides scientists with a concrete representation of its dynamic movements.

"We don't have straightforward ways to look inside the Sun. We don't have a microscope to zoom inside the Sun," Young said. "So using a star or the Sun's vibrations allows us to see inside of it..."

These vibrations allow scientists to study a range of complex motions inside the Sun, from solar flares to coronal mass ejections.

"We can see huge rivers of solar material flowing around. We are finally starting to understand the layers of the Sun and the complexity," Young said. "That simple sound is giving us a probe inside of a star. I think that's a pretty cool thing."