The other night I was pondering to myself the question 'what does space sound like'? For instance, like say if we had some sort of satellite with a huge microphone coming out of it, what would we hear? Nothing? Or would space be a giant sound conducter like water is?

Now, I know the speed of sound is nothing compared to the vastness of space.. but there has to be some noise every once in a while. Like maybe another satellite or whatever is closest to the microphone satellite emits sound and it is transmitted better through space.

Someone enlighten me on this subject?

I can give you a basic answer. If you need a detailed physics
answer, someone else will have to wade in! Sound waves need
a medium to travel through, like air or the water you mentioned.
So, you would hear nothing through the microphone in the vacuum
of space. If you were inside a capsule or craft with a breathable
atmosphere, you would be able to hear sounds that originate
on or within the capsule. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves
and can travel through the vacuum of space of course, a radio receiver and antenna could pick them up. Some objects in space are
known to emit EM radiation in the radio wavelength. Do you wonder
just what they would sound like?

You would hear the farting and burping of little green men

Originally posted by Vortexx
You would hear the farting and burping of little green men

Maybe if you put the headphones on you would hear something
else??

It would probly sound the same if we put a high powered microphones on both sides of your ears.:D
You had to see that one coming.
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I predict that someday we will be able to hear or see, or whatever you'd like to call it, in space. Currently theories as I know them (I could be wrong...happens a lot) have it that gravity waves, if they exist travel at the speed of light. I take it that this means that as an objects moves, its gravitational influence on you changes with relation to its distance. The time it takes for this to happen can cause gravity waves. If we can someday learn to detect these waves and properly gather data from them we could potentionally hear or see, same as we do in a medium.

Just a way off 1000 years down the line prediction. What do you think?

-AntonK

AntonK, I am not sure I understand your thoughts on gravity waves.
Do you think they may have different "frequencies" or something
similar to electromagnatic waves? Like a more massive object having
a different "frequency" than a less massive one? I would imagine
that information could be gained from gravity waves, if they exist
and we could detect them. EM waves now allow us to see (optical
and x-rays, for instance) and hear in space. Many sounds are
received from space, from the ticking beat of a pulsar to the "whoosh"
of a Quasar, in the radio frequencies.

I was thinking more sonar like. With sonar we send out sound and wait for return. Well this can't be done since gravity waves wont bouce off anything. BUT, when something moves in space, it should create small gravity waves, perhaps an array of detectors could gather information from these waves and actually "see" the object. That'd be interesting I think.

Sort of like listening for an object's "wake" in the sea of space.

-AntonK

There are lots of 'waves' out there, but non would be in the hearing range...:)

Originally posted by BigViking
There are lots of 'waves' out there, but non would be in the hearing range...:)
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Yes, BigViking, I guess its just a matter of how you interpit sound.
A broadcast from a radio station is not in the hearing range either.

2inquisitive: exactly! Radiowaves _representing_ and carrying information, which can be transformed to sound with a proper device. That's it.

just turn your radio receiver on a no-station frequency and listen to the sounds of cosmos as much as you like ;)

or you cna go here - the INSPIRE VLF radio receiver
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.
http://spaceweather.com/glossary/inspire.html

just search google for nasa+sounds+space

Good question!!!

Another good question would be "what do the orbits of bodies sound like", but I think this is basically what you meant. Would it be a slowly rumbling, like some space ships in films, etc??

No. It is completely silent in space because the bodies are moving through a vacuum, and there is no friction. :)

This is also why if a 'burst' from a ship is used, a counter burst is needed to stop the movement. Just some info. I thought I'd share, but maybe you already knew this. :)

Space does have a "sound". You can receive from space micro-waves that date from the big bang and that actually lift the minimum temperature of the universe to 3 degrees above absolut zero.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/blackhole_note_030909.html

I thought that sound waves couldnt travel in a vaccum....

These waves are really a kind of shock wave affecting the interstellar (and intergalactic) medium;
I am amazed that these waves can be propagated at all, and that we can detect from this distance.
The intergalactic medium is usually about one atom of hydrogen per cubic metre. The only way such a wave could be propagated is as a gravity wave or electromagnetic wave of some sort; it would be probably undetectable in the galaxies concerned.

We might be surrounded by such waves and be unable to detect them.
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Originally posted by eburacum45
These waves are really a kind of shock wave affecting the interstellar (and intergalactic) medium;
I am amazed that these waves can be propagated at all, and that we can detect from this distance.
The intergalactic medium is usually about one atom of hydrogen per cubic metre. The only way such a wave could be propagated is as a gravity wave or electromagnetic wave of some sort; it would be probably undetectable in the galaxies concerned.

We might be surrounded by such waves and be unable to detect them.
__________________
SF worldbuilding at
http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html

thats interesting. Are you saying that these shock waves are really ultra powerful sine waves?

How could a gravity wave or an electromagnetic wave carry a B-flat harmonic?

unplug your cable from your t.v. and crank up the volume oh yeah baby!

Sounds in Space: Silencing Misconceptions (http://space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_030922.html)

thanks for the info