Sound design a new frontier in astronomy

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-08-16 01:00

Australia; VIC; QLD

What does this mean?

Jump to: MultimediaAttachmentsExpert Reaction

The use of sounds to represent astronomical data (instead of graphs and visual representations) is on the rise and could be key in helping researchers make new discoveries, according to an overview of the practice published in Nature Astronomy. Compared with our eyes, ears are better at perceiving time-based information, patterns, and transient changes. This means that allocating different ‘sound parameters’ (such as pitch, volume or tempo) to different data points (such as radiation levels or types of gravitational waves) can help people pick up on sudden events or disturbances that could be missed in the blink of an eye. Developing new techniques with sound also has great potential to increase the accessibility of astronomy to people who are blind or have low vision, as well as those with dyslexia and autism.