Star Songs: From X-Rays to Music

The Project

This is a story of how cosmic x-rays became music. A first step turned x-rays emitted by the binary system of EX Hydrae into sounds. A second step made these sounds into music.

X-ray Source

chandra feature

EX Hydrae is a binary system of two stars circling each other. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has recorded x-rays from EX Hydrae.

X-ray to Sound

wanda feature

In the spring of 2011, Wanda L. Diaz Merced spent time at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, doing research for her…

Sound to Music

music feature

Avant-garde composers have experimented with aleatoric music, in which randomness plays a major role. The sonified x-ray data would…