RESEARCHERS have revealed just how loud the sounds of the Sun really are.
Solar physicists from Stanford University have determined the solar surface noise of the Sun.
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Should its soundwaves propagate through space, it would be approximately 100dB by the time it reaches Earth, per the American Academy of Audiology.
This translates to tens of thousands of watts of sound energy generated per meter on the Sun.
What causes this?
This is due to the constant flow of rising hot material to the Sun’s surface and the sinking of cooled material toward its center.
In turn, this creates sounds estimated to be “10x to the 100x the power flux through speakers at a rock concert.”
Astronomers were able to figure this out by recording acoustical pressure waves in the Sun.
The recordings are the results of carefully tracking movements on the Sun’s surface.
Researchers used an instrument called a Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI).
MDI is currently mounted on the SOHO spacecraft, which is circling the Sun around 1,000,000 miles away from Earth.
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How does it travel?
Astronomers noted that the Sun’s acoustical waves bounce from one side of the gas giant to the other in around two hours.
This leads to the oscillation of the Sun’s surface which can help scientists learn more about its interior.
Can we hear them?
The Sun’s sound waves are normally at frequencies too low for the human ear to hear, researchers have found.
However, we can now hear them thanks to scientists speeding up the waves 42,000 times.
This is the result of 40 days of sound compression into a few seconds.
What’s more, if the Sun died and we could somehow hear it, we’d be listening to its death for nearly 14 years after it vanished thanks to the speed of sound.
