A decade ago, American physics professor John Cramer released an audio file which made history: the sound of the theorized Big Bang that formed the universe. Now, armed with new data and more observations, Cramer has released a remix – an improved version of the universe’s first one hit wonder.

“In general, there are no sounds in space, because there is no air to vibrate,” Cramer, a professor emeritus at the University of Washington, tells QMI Agency.

However, during the Big Bang, the universe was an inimaginably different place.

“The Big Bang is the exception to this, because the medium that pervaded the universe in the first 100,000 years or so was far more dense than the atmosphere of the Earth.”

So what he did was to trace compression waves (sound waves) like ripples in a pool or the ringing of a bell to their source.

Source

“The initial sound waves left a “fingerprint” on the cosmic microwave background in the form of temperature variations,” he explains. “If you were there then, you might hear something like the bottled sound, but the frequencies present then would be very much lower than the simulation.”

Enjoyed this article? Join 40,000+ subscribers to the ZME Science newsletter. Subscribe now!