AT Collections – Acoustics in Space

They say no one can hear you scream in space, but is it true? On Earth we think of sound as vibrations traveling through air or water, and the same is true of other planets, except that the ‘air’ and ‘water’ might be replaced by more exotic gases and liquids. An example is the nitrogen atmosphere and liquid ethane lakes of Saturn’s moon, Titan, where the idea of exploring the atmosphere and lakes with sound has been suggested. In outer space there is a very low density of hydrogen atoms that could propagate inter-molecular vibrations at a frequency of one billionth of a hertz. So it really is sound, but not as we know it.

(prepared by Arthur N. Popper)