Cosmic Melody Reveals the Universe宇宙旋律揭示宇宙奥秘

Not only does astronomical sonification expand access for the blind community， it gives scientists a new perspective.

天文数据可听化不仅为盲人群体增加了了解宇宙的机会，还为科学家打开了研究新视角。

Christine Malec， who has been blind since birth， has always been a big astronomy buff. However， throughout her childhood， most astronomical information was only accessible to her via space documentaries or science fiction books.

自出生就双目失明的克里斯蒂娜·马莱克一直是个超级天文迷。然而，在整个童年时期，她只能通过太空纪录片或科幻小说来获取大部分天文学知识。

Nearly a decade ago， Malec discovered a completely new way to experience astronomy when she saw astronomer and musician Matt Russo， Ph.D.， give a presentation at a local planetarium in Toronto. Using a process called astronom-ical sonification， Russo had translated information collected from the TRAPPIST-1 system1 into something people who are blind or have low vision could experience： music.

大约十年前，马莱克参加了天文学家兼音乐家马特·拉索博士在多伦多当地天文馆举办的讲座，她从中了解到一种体验天文学的全新方式。拉索博士通过名为“天文数据可听化”的技术，将从TRAPPIST-1星系收集到的信息转换成视力丧失或低下人群可以体验到的东西——音乐。

Russo’s song sent a wave of goosebumps through Malec’s body. Something she had previously understood intellectually but never had turned into a sensory experience was suddenly， profoundly felt.

马莱克听了拉索博士的音乐后，激动得浑身起鸡皮疙瘩。她突然深刻地感受到了自己以往在智力层面理解，但从未在感官层面体验的天文学知识。

“It was unforgettable，” said Malec. “I compare it to what it might be like for a sighted person to look up at the night sky and get a sensory intuition of the size and nature of the cosmos. As a blind person， that’s an experience I hadn’t had.”

马莱克说：“那是一次令人难忘的经历！大概就像视力正常的人仰望夜空，对宇宙的大小和本质有了直观的感受。作为一个盲人，那是我从未有过的体验。”

Through astronomical sonification， scientists map complex astronomical structures like black holes or exploded stars through the similarly expansive and multidimensional world of sound. Translating data from outer space into music not only expands access to astronomy for people who are blind or have low vision， but it also has the potential to help all scientists better understand the universe by leading to novel discoveries. Like images from the James Webb telescope that contextualize our tiny place in the universe， astro-nomical sonification similarly holds the power to connect listeners to the cosmos.

通过天文数据可听化，科学家们借助同样广阔和多维的声音世界，呈现出黑洞或爆炸的恒星等复杂的天文结构。将来自外太空的数据转化为音乐不仅为视力丧失或低下人群增加了接触天文学的机会，还有可能给科学家们带来新发现，从而帮助他们更好地了解宇宙。就像詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜拍摄的图像能将我们这个微小星球置于宇宙的大背景下，天文数据可听化也有能力将听众与宇宙联系起来。

“It really does bring a connection that you don’t necessarily get when you’re just looking at a cluster of galaxies that’s billions of light years away from you that stretches across many hundreds of millions of light years，” said Kimberly Kowal Arcand， Ph.D.， a data visualizer for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. “Having sound as a way of experiencing that type of phenomenon， that type of object， whatever it is， is a very valid way of experiencing the world around you and of making meaning.”

金伯利·科瓦尔·阿坎德博士是美国国家航空航天局钱德拉X射线天文台的数据可视化专家。他说：“天文数据可听化确实能建立起一种联系。当你只是看着一团距离你数十亿光年而且已扩张数亿光年的星系，你不一定能体会到那种联系，但是当你通过声音去感受那种现象、那个天体或其他什么东西，你就能真切感受到周围世界的存在，这也是一种赋予意义的有效方式。”

Chandra Sonifications translates complex data from astronomical objects into sound. One of their most popular productions， which has been listened to millions of times， sonified a black hole in the Perseus cluster galaxy about 240 million light-years away. When presenting this sonification at last year’s SXSW festival2， Russo， who works with Chandra through an oranization he founded called SYSTEM Sounds， said this eerie sound used to depict the black hole had been likened to “millions of damned souls being sucked into the pits of hell.”

“钱德拉可听化”项目将来自天体的复杂数据转换为声音。该项目最受欢迎的作品之一是将约2.4亿光年外英仙座星系团中一个黑洞的数据转换成音乐，这首音乐作品的播放量已高达数百万次。拉索博士通过自己成立的组织“星系之声”与钱德拉X射线天文台展开合作，在去年的“西南偏南”大会和艺术节上播放了这首“黑洞”作品。拉索博士表示，这种用来描述黑洞的怪异声音听起来就像“数百万被诅咒的灵魂被吸入地狱的深渊”。

Though the process differs slightly depending on each project， the team at Chandra usually uses Python to create a mathematical map of the data， inputs that into music software and then fine-tunes it， Arcand said. Some projects have more artistic elements that the musicians decide to incorporate， while others are more data-driven. Regardless， the team works with consultants like Malec who are blind or have low vision throughout the process to make sure that what they’re mapping is clear， harmonious and makes sense.

阿坎德博士说，虽然每个作品的转换过程略有不同，但“钱德拉可听化”项目团队通常先用编程语言Python创建数据的数学映射图，再将其导入音乐软件，然后进行微调。有些作品包含更多由音乐家决定融入的艺术元素，而其他作品则更加偏向数据驱动。不管怎样，项目团队在整个过程中都需要与马莱克这样视力丧失或低下的顾问合作，以确保他们转换出来的声音清晰、悦耳、有意义。

When transforming a portrait of the Pillars of Creation， a region of intense star formation， the team converted the tall pillars of gas and dust where baby stars are born into a sort of roaring， foundational hum. Young， energetic stars that lie around these pillars emit lots of X-ray data in what Arcand likened to having “temper tantrums.” These young stars were given a short “burpee” kind of sound to capture this behavior， she explained.

将“创生之柱”（一个恒星形成活动十分剧烈的区域）的图像转换成音乐时，项目团队将孕育恒星的高大柱状结构转化为一种用于打底的低沉咆哮声。这些柱状结构由气体和尘埃组成，它们周围刚刚诞生且充满活力的恒星发射出大量X射线。阿坎德博士将这一现象比作恒星在“闹脾气”，并用短促的“啵哔”声来描述。

Astronomical sonification has the potential to change how astronomers approach their studies， allowing them to view data more creatively and potentially explore the universe more deeply， Arcand said.

阿坎德博士还表示，天文数据可听化可能会改变天文学家的研究方式，使他们能以更具创造性的视角看待天文数据，他们或许能因此更深入地探索宇宙。

“There are moments in a two-dimensional image that I never noticed when I was just looking at it as an image because there’s so much data that I’m looking at all at one time，” Arcand said. “But when you’re listening to the data， you’re listening to it over time… It helps my brain focus and slow down to notice those kinds of temporal aspects.”

阿坎德博士说：“如果我只把某幅二维图像当作一幅图像来看，那么就会有注意不到的地方，因为同时要看的数据太多了。但是‘听’数据的时候，你会随着时间推移一点点听进去……这有助于大脑集中注意力，放慢速度去注意那些有时间就能发现的地方。”

William “Bill” Kurth， Ph.D.， a space physicist at the University of Iowa， said the origins of astronomical sonification can be traced back to at least the 1970s when the Voyager-1 spacecraft recorded electromagnetic wave signals in space that were sent back down to his team on Earth， where they were processed as audio recordings.

艾奥瓦大学的空间物理学家威廉·“比尔”·库尔斯博士说，天文数据可听化的起源至少可以追溯到20世纪70年代，当时“旅行者1号”航天器记录了太空中的电磁波信号并将其传回地球，而他的团队将收到的信号转换成了录音。

Back in 1979， the team plotted the recordings on a frequency-time spectrogram similar to a voiceprint you see on apps that chart sounds like birds chirping， Kurth explained. The sounds emitted a “whistling” effect created by waves following the magnetic fields of the planet rather than going in straight lines. The data seemed to confirm what they had suspected： lightning was shocking through Jupiter’s atmosphere.

库尔斯博士解释说，1979年，他的团队将转换出来的录音绘制成“频率—时间声谱图”，图中的曲线类似记录鸟鸣等声音的应用程序hurMRHYxgnYKvXIKEBCS1bPDyt/nbgIP3a6OnaGKcQo=绘制出来的声波纹。录音中的声音有种“吹口哨”的效果，这种效果因电磁波随行星磁场而非沿直线传播而产生。记录下来的数据似乎证实了团队的猜测：木星的大气层中产生了闪电。

“At that time， the existence of lightning anywhere other than in Earth’s atmosphere was unknown，” said Kurth. “This became the first time that we realized that lightning might exist on another planet.”

库尔斯博士说：“那个时候，我们只知道地球的大气层有闪电。那份录音让我们第一次意识到另一个星球的大气层也可能存在闪电。”

Beyond astronomy， sonification can be applied to any of the sciences， and health researchers are currently looking at tonifying DNA strands to better understand how proteins fold in multiple dimensions. Chandra is also working on constructing tactile 3-D models of astronomical phenomena， which also expands access for people who are blind or have low vision—those who have historically only been able to experience these sciences through words.

除了天文学，可听化技术还可以应用于其他任何科学领域，比如医疗领域的研究人员目前正致力于强化DNA链，以便更好地了解蛋白质是如何在多个维度上进行折叠的。钱德拉X射线天文台正在研究构建天文现象的触觉三维模型。对于过去只能通过话语来感受各种学科的视力丧失或低下人群，这种模型也能提供更多了解天文学的机会。

“As a blind person， your experience of the world is often linear， in that you can’t walk into a space and make a survey and take it all in at once，” Malec explained. “When I touch these [astro-nomical objects]， it’s like a window into the universe， which is I guess how sighted people experience pictures.”

马莱克解释说：“盲人对世界的体验通常是线性的，因为我们进入一个空间后，无法对该空间进行一番调查，不能立马接受空间内的所有信息。但是，当我触摸这些（天体）时，仿佛找到了一扇通往宇宙的窗户，我想这就是视力正常的人看图片时的感受吧。”

1在这个距离地球约40光年的“迷你太阳系”中，有七个地质和大小都类似地球的行星，它们围绕红矮星TRAPPIST-1公转。

2 = South by Southwest Conference and Festivals“西南偏南”大会和艺术节，创办于20世纪80年代，集科技、音乐、电影、交互式多媒体于一体。