NGC 3603 Sonification

NGC 3603 is a massive, crowded cluster of young stars in the Milky Way galaxy. This track operates as a burst of musical energy. The translation of NGC 3603’s into sound begins with a left to right scan where the brightnesses of the sources once again dictate volume. Chandra’s observations of compact sources sprinkled throughout the galaxy are heard as piano notes, while the diffuse X-ray emission is mapped to a range of audio frequencies. The Hubble optical data are played as sustained tones and acoustic guitar harmonics.

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The Chandra sonifications were led by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC), with input from NASA's Universe of Learning. The sustained collaboration was driven by visualization scientist Dr. Kimberly Arcand (CXC), astrophysicist Dr. Matt Russo and musician Andrew Santaguida (both of the SYSTEM Sounds project). For other sonifications, please see their linked pages.