New ‘sonification’ project unveiled by NASA

New ‘sonification’ project unveiled by NASA

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Space

In news

• The NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) has unveiled a new ‘sonification’ project that transforms data from astronomical images into audio.

Important value additions

Data Sonification

• It refers to the use of sound values to represent real data.
• It is the auditory version of data visualisation.
• In NASA’s Chandra (sonification) project, for instance, data is represented using a number of musical notes.
• The birth of a star, a cloud of dust or even a black hole can be ‘heard’ as a high- or low-pitched sound.

Chandra X-ray Project

• The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched by Space Shuttle Columbia in 1999.
• It is part of NASA’s fleet of “Great Observatories”.
•  X-ray universe: It refers to the universe as observed with telescopes designed to detect X-rays. 
• X-rays are produced in the cosmos when matter is heated to millions of degrees. 
• Such temperatures occur where high magnetic fields, or extreme gravity, or explosive forces exist in space.
• The telescope is named after the Nobel Prize-winning Indian astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.