Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 26

ORBITS: BEATRIZ INGLESSIS / S&T, TRAPPIST-1 MUSIC: MATT RUSSO & ANDREW
SANTAGUIDA; ABSTRACT WAVE BACKGROUND: VECTORSTUFF / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
MULTISENSORY ASTRONOMY by Isabel Swafford
g
c
b
f
e
d
Seeing
the Universe
Without Sight
Creative minds are finding ways to explore
and share the wonders of the cosmos
without visual aids.
L
ook up at the night sky and then close your eyes. The
twinkling stars and distant worlds disappear.
Now imagine you hear a repeating piano note.
Rhythmic and regular, it tolls like a bell.
A new note interrupts the drone, adding itself to the noise.
Higher in pitch, it comes in at a slightly faster tempo. A few
beats later more notes chime in, each higher in pitch and
speed. Finally, the last note arrives as staccato pings, beeping
like a metal detector over hidden treasure.
The instruments making this cacophony are the Trappist-1
exoplanets, a system of seven alien planets orbiting a red
dwarf star 40 light-years away from us.
Scientists created the beeps and boops of Trappist-1
through data sonification, a process that mathematically
translates data into sound. They used the exoplanets' orbital
periods to choose each pitch: They assigned the longest orbit
to a low note - specifically C3, one octave below middle C -
26 MARCH 2024 * SKY & TELESCOPE
h
and then scaled the other orbits to higher pitches based on
their frequency relationship with one another.
The resulting sonification is more than an engaging
educational tool. It's a door that opens up the whole universe
like never before.
Astronomy as we know it has been built upon a visual
language. From scientific charts and complicated graphs to
planetarium shows and 20-million-pixel images, the mainstream
way to do astronomy is with our eyes.
But for audiences who are blind or have low vision,
expressing the beauty of the cosmos in this way renders it
inaccessible.
Although humans began astronomy by looking at the
heavens, our experience of the universe doesn't necessarily
have to be communicated in visual ways. And since much
of the light in the universe is beyond what humans can
see, astronomers are already cosmic translators when they
present what they've detected. Every day, they methodically
combine telescope observations from across the spectrum,
from radio waves to X-rays, to visualize the universe.
A growing number of astronomers, educators, and advocates
are working to expand those translation efforts to new

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Sky & Telescope - March 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2024

Contents
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - Cover1
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - Cover2
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 1
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - Contents
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 3
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 4
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 5
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 6
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 7
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 8
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 9
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 10
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 11
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 12
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 13
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 14
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 15
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 16
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 17
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 18
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 19
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 20
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 21
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 22
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 23
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 24
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 25
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 26
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 27
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 28
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 29
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 30
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 31
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 33
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 34
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 35
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 36
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 37
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 38
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 40
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 41
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 42
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 43
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 45
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 46
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 47
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 49
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 50
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 51
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 53
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 63
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - 71
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Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - Cover3
Sky & Telescope - March 2024 - Cover4
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