Cosmic Melody Reveals the Universe宇宙旋律揭示宇宙奧秘

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

天文數據可聽化不僅為盲人群體增加了了解宇宙的機會，還為科學家打開了研究新視角。

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.

自出生就雙目失明的克里斯蒂娜·馬萊克一直是個超級天文迷。然而，在整個童年時期，她只能通過太空紀錄片或科幻小說來獲取大部分天文學知識。

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.

大約十年前，馬萊克參加了天文學家兼音樂家馬特·拉索博士在多倫多當地天文館舉辦的講座，她從中了解到一種體驗天文學的全新方式。拉索博士通過名為“天文數據可聽化”的技術，將從TRAPPIST-1星系收集到的信息轉換成視力喪失或低下人群可以體驗到的東西——音樂。

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.

馬萊克聽了拉索博士的音樂后，激動得渾身起雞皮疙瘩。她突然深刻地感受到了自己以往在智力層面理解，但從未在感官層面體驗的天文學知識。

“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.”

馬萊克說：“那是一次令人難忘的經歷！大概就像視力正常的人仰望夜空，對宇宙的大小和本質有了直觀的感受。作為一個盲人，那是我從未有過的體驗。”

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.

通過天文數據可聽化，科學家們借助同樣廣闊和多維的聲音世界，呈現出黑洞或爆炸的恒星等復雜的天文結構。將來自外太空的數據轉化為音樂不僅為視力喪失或低下人群增加了接觸天文學的機會，還有可能給科學家們帶來新發現，從而幫助他們更好地了解宇宙。就像詹姆斯·韋伯太空望遠鏡拍攝的圖像能將我們這個微小星球置于宇宙的大背景下，天文數據可聽化也有能力將聽眾與宇宙聯系起來。

“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·科瓦爾·阿坎德博士是美國國家航空航天局錢德拉X射線天文臺的數據可視化專家。他說：“天文數據可聽化確實能建立起一種聯系。當你只是看著一團距離你數十億光年而且已擴張數億光年的星系，你不一定能體會到那種聯系，但是當你通過聲音去感受那種現象、那個天體或其他什么東西，你就能真切感受到周圍世界的存在，這也是一種賦予意義的有效方式。”

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.”

“錢德拉可聽化”項目將來自天體的復雜數據轉換為聲音。該項目最受歡迎的作品之一是將約2.4億光年外英仙座星系團中一個黑洞的數據轉換成音樂，這首音樂作品的播放量已高達數百萬次。拉索博士通過自己成立的組織“星系之聲”與錢德拉X射線天文臺展開合作，在去年的“西南偏南”大會和藝術節上播放了這首“黑洞”作品。拉索博士表示，這種用來描述黑洞的怪異聲音聽起來就像“數百萬被詛咒的靈魂被吸入地獄的深淵”。

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.

阿坎德博士說，雖然每個作品的轉換過程略有不同，但“錢德拉可聽化”項目團隊通常先用編程語言Python創建數據的數學映射圖，再將其導入音樂軟件，然后進行微調。有些作品包含更多由音樂家決定融入的藝術元素，而其他作品則更加偏向數據驅動。不管怎樣，項目團隊在整個過程中都需要與馬萊克這樣視力喪失或低下的顧問合作，以確保他們轉換出來的聲音清晰、悅耳、有意義。

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.

將“創生之柱”（一個恒星形成活動十分劇烈的區域）的圖像轉換成音樂時，項目團隊將孕育恒星的高大柱狀結構轉化為一種用于打底的低沉咆哮聲。這些柱狀結構由氣體和塵埃組成，它們周圍剛剛誕生且充滿活力的恒星發射出大量X射線。阿坎德博士將這一現象比作恒星在“鬧脾氣”，并用短促的“啵嗶”聲來描述。

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.

阿坎德博士還表示，天文數據可聽化可能會改變天文學家的研究方式，使他們能以更具創造性的視角看待天文數據，他們或許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.”

阿坎德博士說：“如果我只把某幅二維圖像當作一幅圖像來看，那么就會有注意不到的地方，因為同時要看的數據太多了。但是‘聽’數據的時候，你會隨著時間推移一點點聽進去……這有助于大腦集中注意力，放慢速度去注意那些有時間就能發現的地方。”

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.

艾奧瓦大學的空間物理學家威廉·“比爾”·庫爾斯博士說，天文數據可聽化的起源至少可以追溯到20世紀70年代，當時“旅行者1號”航天器記錄了太空中的電磁波信號并將其傳回地球，而他的團隊將收到的信號轉換成了錄音。

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.

庫爾斯博士解釋說，1979年，他的團隊將轉換出來的錄音繪制成“頻率—時間聲譜圖”，圖中的曲線類似記錄鳥鳴等聲音的應用程序hurMRHYxgnYKvXIKEBCS1bPDyt/nbgIP3a6OnaGKcQo=繪制出來的聲波紋。錄音中的聲音有種“吹口哨”的效果，這種效果因電磁波隨行星磁場而非沿直線傳播而產生。記錄下來的數據似乎證實了團隊的猜測：木星的大氣層中產生了閃電。

“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.”

庫爾斯博士說：“那個時候，我們只知道地球的大氣層有閃電。那份錄音讓我們第一次意識到另一個星球的大氣層也可能存在閃電。”

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.

除了天文學，可聽化技術還可以應用于其他任何科學領域，比如醫療領域的研究人員目前正致力于強化DNA鏈，以便更好地了解蛋白質是如何在多個維度上進行折疊的。錢德拉X射線天文臺正在研究構建天文現象的觸覺三維模型。對于過去只能通過話語來感受各種學科的視力喪失或低下人群，這種模型也能提供更多了解天文學的機會。

“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.”

馬萊克解釋說：“盲人對世界的體驗通常是線性的，因為我們進入一個空間后，無法對該空間進行一番調查，不能立馬接受空間內的所有信息。但是，當我觸摸這些（天體）時，仿佛找到了一扇通往宇宙的窗戶，我想這就是視力正常的人看圖片時的感受吧。”

1在這個距離地球約40光年的“迷你太陽系”中，有七個地質和大小都類似地球的行星，它們圍繞紅矮星TRAPPIST-1公轉。

2 = South by Southwest Conference and Festivals“西南偏南”大會和藝術節，創辦于20世紀80年代，集科技、音樂、電影、交互式多媒體于一體。