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.