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The space race is over, folks. Ira wins a copy of The Space Tourist’s Handbook: Where to Go, What to See, and How to Prepare for the Ride of Your Life for supplying the Generator with this nugget of amazement:
“A few years back, British scientists analyzed sound waves emanating from a black hole and discovered that it was effectively “singing” a B flat. This black hole put Barry White to shame, because the B flat was 57 octaves below Middle C.”
Our amazing runners-up will also be entered into the Generator soon.
For all you readers who aren’t Ira, you’ve still got a shot at a prize. Tomorrow, I’ll be announcing a new prize and a new topic for this week’s fact contest, so get your best trivia ready to go.
congrats Ira :)
I have come across this fact a couple times recently, and it leaves me a bit confused. I was under the impression that sound waves cannot travel through the vacuum of space (I think read that in an article in an old issue of Mental Floss about the physics of Star Trek?). The above fact seems to contradict that, can someone please explain so I’m not confused anymore? please and thank you!! :)
posted by Clotho on 3-3-2008 at 3:16 pm
Clotho,
Outer space isn’t a perfect vacuum. Even the most desolate stretches of space contain a few atoms per cubic centimeter. The sound waves coming from the singing black hole were traveling through the hot gases that fill the Perseus galaxy cluster (where this particular black hole is located).
posted by Matt on 3-3-2008 at 8:37 pm
that makes sense, thanks for clearing that up for me Matt!
:)
posted by Clotho on 3-4-2008 at 5:37 pm