Chandra Release - May 4, 2022 Visual Description: Black Hole Sonifications In this release, datasets gathered from two different black holes have been both visualized and sonified. These interpretations are presented as short videos with integrated soundtracks. The first focuses on the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy, and the second features the black hole in the Messier 87 galaxy. The composite image associated with the Perseus galaxy black hole resembles the view down the center of a purple, cotton candy funnel cloud. The blues and purples in this image represent X-ray data captured by Chandra. When assembling earlier images of this black hole, researchers identified literal sound waves; the lowest pitches ever found. In this sonification, those actual sounds have been scaled up 57 and 58 octaves to make them perceptible to the human ear. The original sound waves radiate in all directions from the center of the black hole, which here resembles a glowing white cluster at the heart of the funnel cloud. In the sonification video, a glowing purple line emanating from that glowing cluster, sweeps around the image like the hand of a clock, or the arm on a radar screen. As the line sweeps around the image, we hear the scaled-up sound waves being emitted in each direction. Three complimentary images have been used to create the sonification of the Messier 87, or M87 galaxy. Each of the three stacked images depicts the black hole and its jet using data from different telescopes. On top is an image in purple and black featuring X-ray data from Chandra. In the middle, in blue and white, is an optical image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. And on the bottom, in orange, white, and black, is a radio wave image courtesy of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile. In all three images, the black hole is a bright spot at our lower left. The jets, broken lines of varying width, shoot toward our upper right. In the X-ray image on top, the neon purple jet is set against the blackness of space. In the optical image in the middle, the wispy white jet is set against a sky-blue backdrop. And in the radio wave image on the bottom, the orange and white jet shoots across the black sky like a beam of fire. In the sonification video, a glowing vertical line sweeps over the stacked images from our left to right. This means it encounters the common features in all three images at the same time; first the black hole, then the wispiest part of the jet, followed by the thickest part of the jet. Here, brightness controls the volume, so the brighter the element, the louder the sound. Each wavelength is mapped to a corresponding pitch range, meaning the X-ray wavelength occupies a higher pitch range than optical, which in turn is higher than radio. Strings have been assigned to the X-ray data, breathy synthesizer sounds to optical, and brass sounds to radio.