Matt Russo: What does the universe sound like? A musical tour
Matt Russo: ¿Cómo suena el Universo? Una gira musical
Matt Russo is an astrophysicist and musician who translates the rhythm and harmony of the cosmos into music and sound. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to close your eyes, please ...
cierren los ojos, por favor
in the middle of a large, open field
de un gran campo abierto
verá aparecer las estrellas,
you don't just see the stars appear,
being the loudest notes
siendo las notas más graves
producing the higher-pitched notes.
is made up of different types of stars,
their own unique melody,
su propia melodía única,
it from a new perspective,
with a wider range of people.
con un rango de gente mayor.
que soy astrofísico,
I'm an astrophysicist,
they're like, "Yeah, we know."
between music and astronomy.
entre música y astronomía.
años, a Pitágoras.
to Pythagoras.
from such theorems
por teoremas como
in the humming of the strings,
de las cuerdas,
of the spheres."
de las esferas".
along the celestial sphere
"¿Por qué no oímos nada?"
"Why don't we hear anything?"
what it's like to not hear it;
for your power to go out
que la electricidad se vaya
su refrigerador.
your refrigerator was.
including such names as Aristotle.
incluyendo nombres
as the heavens themselves
como los cielos mismos
there is no music of the spheres.
música en las esferas.
propósito del cerebro
only purpose was to cool down the blood,
de alguna manera,
they were actually both right.
what makes music musical.
hace a la música musical.
suenan relativamente agradables
sound relatively pleasing or consonant,
a lot more tense or dissonant,
más tensas o disonantes,
o fuera de tono?
en el extremo izquierdo
very fast back and forth.
muy rápido ida y vuelta.
you'll get two strings,
la mitad, se obtendrán dos cuerdas,
really is simple ratios:
musical son ratios simples:
those two notes will sound together.
sonarán esas dos notas juntas.
más disonantes sonarán.
the more dissonant they will sound.
e interacción,
between tension and release,
we like to think of as pitch and rhythms,
of the same thing,
de la misma cosa,
más rápido)
more than about 20 times per second,
más de 20 veces por segundo,
empieza a oírlo como un tono.
and starts hearing it as a pitch.
with astronomy?
to the TRAPPIST-1 system.
sistema TRAPPIST-1.
discovered last February of 2017,
descubierto el pasado febrero
all orbiting a very near red dwarf star.
de la Tierra
for liquid water.
that in the next few years,
elements in their atmospheres
potential signs of life.
potenciales de vida.
the TRAPPIST system is that it is tiny.
interior de los planetas rocosos
of the inner rocky planets
planets of TRAPPIST-1
terrestre de TRAPPIST-1
the orbit of Mercury.
la órbita de Mercurio.
de los planetas TRAPPIST-1.
of the TRAPPIST-1 planets.
to our planet Jupiter and its moons,
tamaño de la Tierra
Earth-size planets orbiting a star.
was artist renderings like this.
some ice, maybe some land,
algo de hielo, tal vez tierra
in this amazing orange sunset.
en este increíble atardecer naranja.
some other papers came out
salieron otros artículos.
it probably looks more like this.
might actually be molten lava
podría ser lava fundida
X-rays coming from the central star --
perjudiciales procedentes
of life and even strip off atmospheres.
la superficie de la vida
unos meses, en 2018,
with more refined measurements,
con medidas más refinadas,
it does look something like that.
lucía como algo así.
have huge supplies of water --
tienen enormes suministros de agua
have thick atmospheres,
atmósferas espesas,
for potential life.
para una potencial vida.
exciting about this system,
más emocionante de este sistema,
is a resonant chain.
es una cadena resonante.
of the outer planet,
dos órbitas del planeta exterior,
among the orbits of these planets.
entre las órbitas de esos planetas.
you can get rhythms, right?
a planet goes around.
que un planeta da vueltas.
that motion up even more,
el movimiento aún más
even human-like harmony.
a note for every orbit of each planet,
por cada órbita de cada planeta,
from the system itself.
sistema en sí.
into the human hearing range.
rango de audición humana.
han entrado,
for every time two planets align.
que dos planetas se alinean.
get close to each other
its light converted into sound.
estrella, luz convertida en sonido.
how this is even possible.
cómo es esto incluso posible
of the analogy of an orchestra.
la anología de una orquesta.
empezar a tocar en una orquesta,
to start playing in an orchestra,
con sus instrumentos vecinos
with their neighbors' instruments,
to TRAPPIST-1 early in its existence.
con las de sus vecinos
because this system is so compact --
sería demasiado compacto,
wasn't very finely tuned,
no estuviera muy afinado,
disrupt each other's orbits,
el resto de las órbitas,
that is keeping this system alive --
la que mantiene el sistema vivo
but it's not pretty.
pero no es bonito.
is on a much, much larger scale,
en una escala mucho más grande,
cerca del límite inferior
near the bottom of our hearing range,
to be all the way up
no son tan compactos,
are not very compact --
their orbits to each other,
sus órbitas entre sí,
propia nota aleatoria
their own random note at random times.
the laws of planetary motion.
movimiento planetario.
con esta idea
between music, astronomy and geometry.
la música, astronomía y geometría.
harmony amongst the solar system's planets
de armonía musical
had he lived on TRAPPIST-1,
si hubiera vivido en TRAPPIST-1
discovered in January of 2018
descubierto en enero de 2018
they were all finely tuned.
todos estaban afinados.
proposed by Pythagoras himself,
named after Kepler,
así por Kepler,
espacial Kepler.
is go back in time
retroceder en el tiempo
they would've sounded like
¿Hasta dónde llega esto?
How far does this go?
at U of T's planetarium,
named Robyn Rennie and her daughter Erin.
llamada Robyn Rennie
to fully see it for 13 years
claramente durante 13 años
if there was anything I could do.
que yo pudiera hacer.
I could think of from the universe
que podía pensar del universo
what became "Our Musical Universe."
del planetario basado en sonido
and harmony of the cosmos.
la armonía del cosmos.
by this presentation
por la presentación
representation of her experience.
representación de su experiencia.
by putting Jupiter on it for the poster.
a Júpiter para el póster.
of all vision levels
de todos los niveles de visión
por el universo,
of the universe,
to the edge of the observable universe.
hasta el fin del borde
of a musical odyssey
de una odisea musical
with new eyes and with new ears,
con nuevos ojos y oídos,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Matt Russo - Astrophysicist, musicianMatt Russo is an astrophysicist and musician who translates the rhythm and harmony of the cosmos into music and sound.
Why you should listen
Matt Russo co-founded the art-science project SYSTEM Sounds and works to make astronomy more accessible to the visually impaired. His work has been featured in the New York Times, and he will lead an orchestra in an upcoming BBC documentary on the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. He is currently a professor at Seneca College in Toronto, Canada, where he teaches a course on the deep connections between music and astronomy.
Matt Russo | Speaker | TED.com