What does it sound like inside a pulsar?

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    Pulsar Sound
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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the nature of sound within pulsars, exploring the concept of sound in stars and the implications of pulsar emissions. Participants question whether the sounds produced by pulsars are similar to the converted radio waves that have been made audible, and what the actual sound environment inside a pulsar might be like.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants propose that sound exists within stars due to the collisions of subatomic particles, suggesting that these interactions create vibrations.
  • Others argue that the conversion of pulsar radio waves into sound is primarily for entertainment and does not accurately represent the actual sound environment within a pulsar.
  • A participant questions the significance of sound produced by subatomic collisions, noting that sound typically requires a medium like air to propagate.
  • There is speculation about whether the sound inside a pulsar could be similar to the static noise produced by an untuned radio, but this is met with skepticism regarding its relevance.
  • Some participants express confusion about the nature of sound in pulsars, referencing external discussions that claim sound exists in stars, while others challenge the validity of these claims.
  • A later reply emphasizes that any sound recorded inside a star would likely be random noise due to the chaotic environment, questioning the expectation of structured sound.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the nature of sound within pulsars. There are competing views regarding the existence and characteristics of sound in such environments, with some asserting that sound is present while others remain skeptical.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the speculative nature of sound in pulsars, the dependence on definitions of sound, and the unresolved question of how sound could be identified or characterized in such extreme conditions.

Spearton
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A star is kind of a huge nuclear explosion. Things are smashing into each other all the time, bouncing off, and all this movement creates vibrations, so there's actually sound sound inside any star. Pulsars have produced radio waves, which have been converted into audible sound waves, thus giving us these sounds which are on the internet. The real question is what does it sound like inside a pulsar? Is it the same the as the converted radio waves? Or does it sound differently?
 
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Spearton said:
Things are smashing into each other all the time,

What "things"?
 
Spearton said:
Pulsars have produced radio waves, which have been converted into audible sound waves,
You should avoid giving too much significance to this. The 'conversion' is more of entertainment value than much else. A different conversion process of a different phenomenon would produce different sounds.
 
Vanadium 50 said:
What "things"?

Subatomic particles, my friend.
 
sophiecentaur said:
You should avoid giving too much significance to this. The 'conversion' is more of entertainment value than much else. A different conversion process of a different phenomenon would produce different sounds.

I don't know how does this answer my question.
 
Spearton said:
I don't know how does this answer my question.
If you are going to 'process' any change then you can produce some sort of 'sound'. But what would be the point, unless you wanted to identify some particular mechanism or relationship? That would require that you already know a fair bit about what goes on in there.
 
Spearton said:
Subatomic particles, my friend.
Hmm. I wonder if this has been done in CERN. They can identify a lot of subatomic particles. I'm not sure about the entertainment value of such an exercise.
 
sophiecentaur said:
If you are going to 'process' any change then you can produce some sort of 'sound'. But what would be the point, unless you wanted to identify some particular mechanism or relationship? That would require that you already know a fair bit about what goes on in there.

I just want to know what does it sound like there. I'm just curious. Do you understand what I want to know?
 
Spearton said:
Is it the same the as the converted radio waves?
Even if it could be said that there is sound inside a pulsar, that's not how radio works. The sound-carrying radio humans use is a purely human invention, not a natural thing. Pulsars are not equipped with man-made radios (what would that even look-like...?).
I just want to know what does it sound like there. I'm just curious. Do you understand what I want to know?
Kind of. You have a speculation that there is sound inside a pulsar, which is a dubious supposition. It probably doesn't have anything we'd recognize as sound and even if it did, it would probably just be white noise.
 
  • #10
Take any ordinary radio. Tune it so that it hears no station at all. The hiss and static you hear has been called "the sound of the sun.". Maybe that is what you have in mind.
 
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  • #11
Spearton said:
Subatomic particles, my friend.

And how does that "smashing" produce sound? Sound is the motion of air molecules. Do you think LHC collisions are loud?
 
  • #12
Spearton said:
I just want to know what does it sound like there. I'm just curious. Do you understand what I want to know?
I'm afraid you question is not being received in an encouraging way by all of us grumpy, real world Phyisicists on PF.
What comes out of Pulsars is very exceptional (which is why they stood out for the Astronomers who first noticed them. The very fact that they are 'regular' makes them different from most of the other signals we receive. Having said that, all the celestial bodies are in orbit around something else and orbits are regular - but not at audio frequencies.
 
  • #13
sophiecentaur said:
I'm afraid you question is not being received in an encouraging way by all of us grumpy, real world Phyisicists on PF.
What comes out of Pulsars is very exceptional (which is why they stood out for the Astronomers who first noticed them. The very fact that they are 'regular' makes them different from most of the other signals we receive. Having said that, all the celestial bodies are in orbit around something else and orbits are regular - but not at audio frequencies.

I'm so confused, and I'm trying to understand. I have asked a similar question in reddit, and people answered saying that there's indeed some sound inside any star. I'll quote you one of them.

There is sound in stars n such since there are massive particles that can collide and communicate with other particles and the number density of these particles is high enough that they can communicate mechanical communication effectively over long distances. There are lots of sound waves propagating throughout stars, which is often described as stars “ringing,” but you probably wouldn’t be able to hear it that well since you would have to be in space to be nearby and again, sound doesn’t travel through space very well at all. If you were inside the star and somehow were able to survive then yes, it would be incredibly loud. These waves can manifest themselves in the surface and give us an incredible amount of information on the star.

Here's the link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhysics/comments/8s2co7/some_questions_about_sound_in_space/

Also, I have heard about a field in astronomy about sound waves inside stars, which is called:
Asteroseismology

Now, I'm trying to figure out what these sound are like inside a pulsar. What do they sound like?
 
  • #14
Spearton said:
I'm so confused, and I'm trying to understand. I have asked a similar question in reddit, and people answered saying that there's indeed some sound inside any star. I'll quote you one of them.
In such a turbulent location there will, of course, be loads of pressure fluctuations at many different frequencies. The reason that I (and apparently other PF contributors) are pretty underwhelmed with the idea is that it goes without saying that vibrations exist. If you put a microphone inside a star (and that itself is another nonsense idea) all it would record is random noise. Why should it be structured enough to be identified as anything else? Did any of your Reddit responses quote any evidence?
Why was the response you got from Reddit not enough for you? What were you expecting and why are you "confused" about it? You posed a question and got some answers which you clearly didn't like so you have just been asking again.
If you want to show PF that our replies are wrong then you will have to go elsewhere (to a credible source) and quote it back to us.
This is not Physics that you are thinking about.
 
  • #15
This thread is closed at the original poster's request.
 

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