31 Aug 2022

There’s a new, immersive way to explore some of the first full-color infrared images and data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — through sound. Listeners can enter the complex soundscape of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, explore the contrasting tones of two images that depict the Southern Ring Nebula, and identify the individual data points in a transmission spectrum of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b.

A team of scientists, musicians, and a member of the blind and visually impaired community worked to adapt Webb’s data, with support from the Webb mission and NASA’s Universe of Learning. “Music taps into our emotional centers,” said Matt Russo, a musician and physics professor at the University of Toronto. “Our goal is to make Webb’s images and data understandable through sound — helping listeners create their own mental images.”

These audio tracks support blind and low-vision listeners first, but are designed to be captivating to anyone who tunes in. “These compositions provide a different way to experience the detailed information in Webb’s first data. Similar to how written descriptions are unique translations of visual images, sonifications also translate the visual images by encoding information, like color, brightness, star locations, or water absorption signatures, as sounds,” said Quyen Hart, a senior education and outreach scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “Our teams are committed to ensuring astronomy is accessible to all.”

This project has parallels to the “curb-cut effect,” an accessibility requirement that supports a wide range of pedestrians. “When curbs are cut, they benefit people who use wheelchairs first, but also people who walk with a cane and parents pushing strollers,” explained Kimberly Arcand, a visualization scientist at the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the initial data sonification project for NASA and now works on it on behalf of NASA’s Universe of Learning. “We hope these sonifications reach an equally broad audience.”

Preliminary results from a survey Arcand led showed that people who are blind or low vision, and people who are sighted, all reported that they learned something about astronomical images by listening. Participants also shared that auditory experiences deeply resonated with them. “Respondents’ reactions varied — from experiencing awe to feeling a bit jumpy,” Arcand continued. “One significant finding was from people who are sighted. They reported that the experience helped them understand how people who are blind or low vision access information differently.”

These tracks are not actual sounds recorded in space. Instead, Russo and his collaborator, musician Andrew Santaguida, mapped Webb’s data to sound, carefully composing music to accurately represent details the team would like listeners to focus on. In a way, these sonifications are like modern dance or abstract painting — they convert Webb’s images and data to a new medium to engage and inspire listeners.

Christine Malec, a member of the blind and low vision community who also supports this project, said she experiences the audio tracks with multiple senses. “When I first heard a sonification, it struck me in a visceral, emotional way that I imagine sighted people experience when they look up at the night sky.”

There are other profound benefits to these adaptations. “I want to understand every nuance of sound and every instrument choice, because this is primarily how I’m experiencing the image or data,” Malec continued. Overall, the team hopes that sonifications of Webb’s data help more listeners feel a stronger connection to the universe — and inspire everyone to follow the observatory’s upcoming astronomical discoveries.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

These sonifications are a result of a collaboration between the NASA’s Universe of Learning program and the James Webb Space Telescope. The Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) leads data sonification as a NASA’s Universe of Learning partner. Science experts affiliated with the Webb mission provide their expertise on Webb observations, data, and targets.

NASA's Universe of Learning is part of the NASA Science Activation program, from the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. The Science Activation program connects NASA science experts, real content and experiences, and community leaders in a way that activates minds and promotes deeper understanding of our world and beyond. Using its direct connection to the science and the experts behind the science, NASA's Universe of Learning provides resources and experiences that enable youth, families, and lifelong learners to explore fundamental questions in science, experience how science is done, and discover the universe for themselves.

NASA's Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

[Image]

[Top Left] Carina Nebula,   [Top Right] Southern Ring Nebula (NIRCam),

[Bottom Left] WASP-96 b,   [Bottom Right] Southern Ring Nebula (MIRI)