Sonification of the Bubble Nebula

In this Hubble image, a super-hot, massive star is blowing an enormous bubble into space. Fittingly named the Bubble Nebula, this beautiful cosmic object is roughly seven light-years across and resides 7,100 light-years from Earth.

Scanned from top to bottom, color is mapped to pitch in this sonification of the nebula. The bright blue of the bubble can be heard as higher pitches; the red and orange regions’ lower pitches are heard most clearly at the beginning on the left and in the top half of the bubble in the middle. Brightness controls the volume and stars are represented by chimes.

Sonification credits: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope and its images, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.