Cosmic music from dying stars

Many science fiction fans take for granted that there's no sound in the vastness of space. But Janna Levin, a physics and astronomy professor at Barnard College, says dramatic events in space do make a kind of music.

"There's no air in space to compress to ring against your ear," she told CNN in an interview at the TED conference in Long Beach, California, in March. "But it's important to realize the universe isn't a silent film, because space itself wobbles and rumbles like a drum in response to all of these things unfolding in the cosmos."

"If space itself is ringing and squeezing and stretching, your eardrums can resonate in response ... you could hear the sound of very dramatic events in the universe," Levin said.

In a talk at TED, Levin illustrated her point by conjuring up an example of two black holes spinning around each other and coalescing. "Black holes can bang on space time like mallets on a drum," she said. more