Thread: The sound of space

Can sound waves travel through space? Sound waves require a medium to travel through and space is a vacuum (mostly) Would a nuclear explosion in space even make a peep?

Originally Posted by ajg624

Can sound waves travel through space? Sound waves require a medium to travel through and space is a vacuum (mostly) Would a nuclear explosion in space even make a peep?

Like Mr. Clarke said: In space noone hears you scream
And nope, if the nuke went off right next to you, you wouldn't hear a thing until everything goes black.

Although theorists are proposing that in the very early universe that the speed of sound was very much higher and that this permitted the uniformity we see in the CMB. This, apparently, does away with the need for inflation.

There are more people here who have a subscription to New Scientist I guess...............

No sound. But this is cute at least:

The Smell of Space

By: ISS Science Officer Don Pettit

Few people have experienced traveling into space. Even fewer have experienced the smell of space. Now this sounds strange, that a vacuum could have a smell and that a human being could live to smell that smell. It seems about as improbable as listening to sounds in space, yet space has a definite smell...

Link

Originally Posted by Pong

No sound. But this is cute at least:

The Smell of Space

By: ISS Science Officer Don Pettit

Few people have experienced traveling into space. Even fewer have experienced the smell of space. Now this sounds strange, that a vacuum could have a smell and that a human being could live to smell that smell. It seems about as improbable as listening to sounds in space, yet space has a definite smell...

Link

Interesting. Hmmmm....

Originally Posted by ajg624

Can sound waves travel through space? Sound waves require a medium to travel through and space is a vacuum (mostly) Would a nuclear explosion in space even make a peep?

There is an article in S&T magazine (May, 2008. p 18-23) about the WMAP evaluations written by Gary Hinshaw that was a member of the WMAP team.

On page 23, there is an illustration showing that a 'sonic boom' preceded the CMB radiation in the early BBT.
This article is not directly linked to this thread but since you mentiond sound, I thought you might be interested in reading it.

Regarding this thread, sound waves do require molecular mediums to travel through. So a nuclear explosion would not be transmitted as a sound wave.
But its effects would be transmitted by the EM radiations from a nuclear explosion that would travel through space.
So if this EM boom reached a dense gaseous environment, there would be a sonic effect as well IMO.

Cosmo

P. S. I do not believe in the BBT.

Originally Posted by Zitterbewegung

There are more people here who have a subscription to New Scientist I guess...............

That is an unwarranted assumption. I may be a recalcitrant kleptomaniac.

Then we might have a deal: You steal, I beg and borrow.........
I'll also cover shipping and handling

Originally Posted by Pong

No sound. But this is cute at least:

The Smell of Space

By: ISS Science Officer Don Pettit

Few people have experienced traveling into space. Even fewer have experienced the smell of space. Now this sounds strange, that a vacuum could have a smell and that a human being could live to smell that smell. It seems about as improbable as listening to sounds in space, yet space has a definite smell...

Link

How could the smell of space reach your nose when there is no medium for the smell to diffuse through?

If you'd clicked the link, you'd know the odor lingers on a returning spacewalker's "suit, helmet, gloves, and tools".

I suspect it's just a combination of scorching and freezerburn, emanating from the materials.

Originally Posted by Cosmo

On page 23, there is an illustration showing that a 'sonic boom' preceded the CMB radiation in the early BBT.
This article is not directly linked to this thread but since you mentiond sound, I thought you might be interested in reading it.

Regarding this thread, sound waves do require molecular mediums to travel through. So a nuclear explosion would not be transmitted as a sound wave.
But its effects would be transmitted by the EM radiations from a nuclear explosion that would travel through space.
So if this EM boom reached a dense gaseous environment, there would be a sonic effect as well IMO.

I think you are confused with the use of the phrase "sound waves". Please be aware that many expressions have a different meaning in science. When astrophysicists speak of "sound waves", they have a more general understanding in the way that every kind of pressure wave propagating through a gaseous medium is meant. It does not mean that you can actually hear something. By the way, the pressure in even the apparently densest interstellar clouds of gas and dust is much smaller than can be achieved by the best laboratory vacuum.

Originally Posted by Cosmo

P. S. I do not believe in the BBT.

Oh great! But science is not a religion, where you can discard something, just because you don't "believe". If you oppose it, you should better have good arguments to explain the facts in a different and coherent way. So your sentence has no scientific relevance.

Originally Posted by ajg624

Can sound waves travel through space? Sound waves require a medium to travel through and space is a vacuum (mostly) Would a nuclear explosion in space even make a peep?

Sound waves are really pressure waves through a physical medium, the only reason nuclear devices work on earth is because they superheat the atmosphere causing it to expand rapidly and push out from the centre, after a few seconds this then cools and causes the air to rush back.

In space only heat and light would be generated plus local melting of any nearby materials. only the primary detonator would explode (a few hundred pounds of TNT maybe). So the nuclear detonation itself would only produce a bright pulse of light and no 'explosion' at all though some sub atominc particles may be thrown around.

Master and 624:

Pressure waves can be attributed to ocean waves or explosions but when it regards to sound in the general sense, it is 'vibrations from strings or reeds' that create the sounds we like.

However, regarding the question in this thread, yes, it would be a pressure wave from the explosion.
But this pressure wave would contain real matter from the nuclear blast.

Cosmo