WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:10.055 You're actually hearing the vibration of the Sun. 2 00:00:10.055 --> 00:00:12.515 It almost has a warmth to it. 3 00:00:14.415 --> 00:00:15.990 It's just enough where I can almost 4 00:00:16.300 --> 00:00:20.170 feel the sound on my skin or on my 5 00:00:20.170 --> 00:00:20.600 clothes. 6 00:00:21.680 --> 00:00:25.280 I imagine feeling the Sun, you know, 7 00:00:25.580 --> 00:00:26.980 moving next to me. 8 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:32.201 My name is Alex Young and I am the 9 00:00:32.201 --> 00:00:33.740 associate director for science 10 00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:36.262 in the Heliophysics Science Division 11 00:00:36.262 --> 00:00:38.928 here at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 12 00:00:38.928 --> 00:00:41.151 When anything material moves, 13 00:00:41.151 --> 00:00:43.450 waves travel through it 14 00:00:43.456 --> 00:00:44.579 and the same thing happens 15 00:00:44.579 --> 00:00:45.640 inside the Sun. 16 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:48.233 And these waves are traveling, bouncing 17 00:00:48.233 --> 00:00:51.025 around inside the Sun and if your eyes 18 00:00:51.025 --> 00:00:53.177 were sensitive enough you actually could 19 00:00:53.177 --> 00:00:55.190 see this jiggle, but what scientists 20 00:00:55.190 --> 00:00:57.540 have done is they've taken that jiggle 21 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.060 and turned it into sound, 22 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:02.543 into a sound that we can hear 23 00:01:02.543 --> 00:01:03.450 with our own ears. 24 00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:07.250 The sun is vibrating at lots of 25 00:01:07.250 --> 00:01:08.380 different frequencies 26 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:09.920 and one of the things that's 27 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:11.260 pretty cool about that is 28 00:01:12.360 --> 00:01:14.848 we can use those vibrations in the Sun 29 00:01:15.380 --> 00:01:16.930 to look inside the Sun. 30 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:20.178 We don't have straightforward 31 00:01:20.178 --> 00:01:20.700 ways to look inside the Sun. 32 00:01:20.788 --> 00:01:22.960 I mean, we don't have a microscope 33 00:01:23.380 --> 00:01:26.821 to zoom inside the Sun so using a star 34 00:01:26.821 --> 00:01:29.115 or the Sun's natural vibrations allows 35 00:01:29.115 --> 00:01:29.880 us to 36 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:32.980 see inside of it and we can see huge 37 00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:34.590 rivers of 38 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.633 solar material flowing around. 39 00:01:37.633 --> 00:01:39.827 We are finally starting to understand the 40 00:01:39.827 --> 00:01:42.900 layers of the Sun and the complexity. 41 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:45.762 It's really cool because all of this 42 00:01:45.762 --> 00:01:46.100 complex 43 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:49.314 motions inside the Sun are in fact what 44 00:01:49.314 --> 00:01:50.961 generates magnetic fields inside the 45 00:01:50.961 --> 00:01:53.267 Sun and those magnetic fields float up 46 00:01:53.267 --> 00:01:54.476 to the surface 47 00:01:54.476 --> 00:01:56.291 and give us sunspots and those 48 00:01:56.291 --> 00:01:57.280 sunspots give us 49 00:01:57.900 --> 00:01:59.200 solar flares and 50 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:01.117 coronal mass ejections, this whole 51 00:02:01.117 --> 00:02:02.742 thing we call space weather. 52 00:02:02.742 --> 00:02:04.440 So all of these things are connected 53 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:06.700 and that simple sound 54 00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:09.217 is giving us a probe inside of a star. 55 00:02:09.217 --> 00:02:10.880 I think that's a pretty cool thing. 56 00:02:23.720 --> 00:02:26.210 The dynamic imagery and sounds of the Sun 57 00:02:26.420 --> 00:02:29.166 are on display at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center 58 00:02:29.166 --> 00:02:29.620 in Greenbelt, Maryland. 59 00:02:30.760 --> 00:02:32.322 Solarium is an immersive art 60 00:02:32.322 --> 00:02:33.572 installation that transports visitors 61 00:02:33.572 --> 00:02:35.760 into the heart of our solar system. 62 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:40.663 This story was produced right here at Goddard 63 00:02:40.663 --> 00:02:42.095 by Katie Atkinson and Micheala Sosby. 64 00:02:43.640 --> 00:02:45.532 The sounds you heard in this piece were sonified 65 00:02:45.532 --> 00:02:47.856 by the Stanford Experimental Physics Lab. 66 00:02:47.856 --> 00:02:49.026 The data comes from the Solar and 67 00:02:49.026 --> 00:02:50.140 Heliospheric Observatory 68 00:02:51.140 --> 00:02:52.490 a collaboration between the 69 00:02:52.490 --> 00:02:54.140 European Space Agency and NASA.