Here’s How The Space Celebrated Christmas

Photo Credit: NASA

NASA has shared a new festive sonification of space, which also shows the massive star RS Puppis. The latest sonification offers an auditory way to experience the image of the enormously-big star. The sonification is based on the image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The sounds in the sonification start at the outer edges and slowly contract toward the center. Points of light close to the top of the image have higher pitch notes and points at the bottom have been assigned lower pitch notes. The brighter lights give away louder sounds.

A Star Significant For Astronomy

RS Puppis is a kind of star known as a Cepheid variable, which was important in the early days of astronomy. These stars pulse in luminosity, with RS Puppis brightening over a six-week cycle. Such stars’ brightness is related to the period of their pulsation.

This means by observing how long a pulse takes, scientists will be able to predict how luminous the star is. It also enables them to compare that brightness to its observed brightness and use this information to measure how far the star is. Knowing the properties of these stars allowed scientists to accurately calculate the distances to other galaxies.

Hubble Captured RS Puppis In Great Detail

The iconic Hubble Space Telescope captured the image of RS Puppis which the sonification is based on back in 2013. Apart from observing the pulsation of the star, scientists were also interested in observing the way light reflects across the dust around the star, known as a light echo.

“By observing the fluctuation of light in RS Puppis itself, as well as recording the faint reflections of light pulses moving across the nebula, astronomers are able to measure these light echoes and pin down a very accurate distance,” the Hubble team explained at the time. “The distance to RS Puppis has been narrowed down to 6,500 light-years (with a margin of error of only one percent).”