Data Sonification of Star Cluster Pismis 24 | Hubble Space Telescope

Data Sonification of Star Cluster Pismis 24 | Hubble Space Telescope

Pismis 24 is a stunning star cluster that lies within the nebula NGC 6357, which resides about 8,000 light-years away. In this sonification of the Hubble image, a top-down scan maps brightness to volume and pitch for both the stars and nebula.  

The stars are assigned to musical pitches played on a classical guitar (brighter stars are louder and higher pitched), and the nebula uses a continuous range of frequencies (brighter regions are louder and higher pitched). Red, green, and blue channels are mapped to low, medium, and high frequency ranges respectively.

The star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357 that extends one degree on the sky in the direction of the Scorpius constellation. Part of the nebula is ionized by the youngest (bluest) heavy stars in Pismis 24. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the blazing stars heats the gas surrounding the cluster and creates a bubble in NGC 6357. The presence of these surrounding gas clouds makes probing into the region even harder.

Recent NASA/European Space Agency Hubble measurements of the star have resolved Pismis 24-1 into two separate stars, and, in doing so, have "halved" its mass to around 100 solar masses.

Credits: 

Image: NASA, European Space Agency and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain); Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

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

Duration: 41 seconds

Release Date: November 29, 2022

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