On Monday, that is, March 21, 2022, the total number of exoplanets passed 5,000. This data has been confirmed with the NASA Exoplanet Archive. The 5000 mark was crossed when a new group of 60 exoplanets was discovered by the official NASA archive, while 5 more were collected from other observatories, bringing the total number to 5005. NASA shared a post through their Instagram handle talking about the same. Find it below.
The vibrations and sonifications keep track of human discovery of the planets beyond our solar system for a period of time. By turning NASA data into different sounds, others can listen to the speed at which they were discovered. The notes provided also contain additional information.
How can you listen to the sonification?
With the discovery of each exoplanet, a circle is formed at the position it had taken in the sky. The dimensions of the circle indicate the comparative measure of the planet’s orbit. While the hue indicates the detection method used to make its discovery. Many would wonder how we can hear the music. Well, it’s simple. The music is composed by anointing a note for each newfound world. The variation of the note’s pitch shows the comparative orbital time. Planets that take longer to orbit their star are considered lower notes, while planets that orbit their star faster are considered higher notes.
Readers may notice that a grid-like pattern begins to form after 2009. This resembles the field of view of NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, which launched itself in 2009. Wherever the telescope looked, it discovered exoplanets.