Matt Russo: What does the universe sound like? A musical tour
Matt Russo: Como soa o universo? Unha xira 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 ...
in the middle of a large, open field
no medio dun gran campo aberto
non só vedes as estrelas xurdir
you don't just see the stars appear,
being the loudest notes
son as notas máis altas
producing the higher-pitched notes.
son as máis agudas.
is made up of different types of stars,
de distintos tipos de estrelas,
their own unique melody,
it from a new perspective,
cunha nova perspectiva
with a wider range of people.
cun abano máis grande de xente.
I'm an astrophysicist,
e eles: "Ah, claro".
they're like, "Yeah, we know."
entre música e astronomía.
between music and astronomy.
to Pythagoras.
from such theorems
in the humming of the strings,
of the spheres."
pola esfera celeste
along the celestial sphere
"Why don't we hear anything?"
por que non oídes nada,
what it's like to not hear it;
que quedar sen electricidade
for your power to go out
your refrigerator was.
como Aristóteles.
including such names as Aristotle.
as the heavens themselves
como o ceo
there is no music of the spheres.
non existe a música das esferas.
only purpose was to cool down the blood,
era arrefriar o sangue,
en certa maneira, os dous tiñan razón.
they were actually both right.
a música é musical.
what makes music musical.
sound relatively pleasing or consonant,
soan relativamente ben ou consoantes,
máis tensas ou disonantes,
a lot more tense or dissonant,
rapidamente adiante a atrás.
very fast back and forth.
tedes dúas cordas,
you'll get two strings,
really is simple ratios:
é só unha proporción:
those two notes will sound together.
son as dúas notas xuntas.
máis disonantes soarán.
the more dissonant they will sound.
entre tensión e liberación
between tension and release,
we like to think of as pitch and rhythms,
ton e ritmo,
of the same thing,
do mesmo,
more than about 20 times per second,
máis de 20 veces por segundo,
and starts hearing it as a pitch.
e comeza a oílo como un ton.
with astronomy?
to the TRAPPIST-1 system.
discovered last February of 2017,
descubriuse en febreiro de 2017,
all orbiting a very near red dwarf star.
orbitando unha estrela anana vermella.
para auga líquida.
for liquid water.
that in the next few years,
elementos nas súas atmosferas
elements in their atmospheres
signos potenciais de vida.
potential signs of life.
the TRAPPIST system is that it is tiny.
of the inner rocky planets
dos planetas rochosos interiores
de TRAPPIST-1
planets of TRAPPIST-1
the orbit of Mercury.
of the TRAPPIST-1 planets.
dos planetas de TRAPPIST-1.
to our planet Jupiter and its moons,
ao noso planeta Xúpiter e ás súas lúas,
Earth-size planets orbiting a star.
orbitando unha estrela.
was artist renderings like this.
interpretacións artísticas como esta.
some ice, maybe some land,
talvez algunha terra,
in this amazing orange sunset.
neste marabilloso solpor.
some other papers came out
saíron outros artigos
sería máis coma isto.
it probably looks more like this.
might actually be molten lava
poderían ser lava fundida
X-rays coming from the central star --
saíndo da estrela central,
of life and even strip off atmospheres.
da vida e eliminarían atmosferas.
with more refined measurements,
con medidas máis axustadas
it does look something like that.
have huge supplies of water --
teñen enormes reservas de auga,
have thick atmospheres,
for potential life.
buscar vida.
exciting about this system,
emocionante neste sistema,
is a resonant chain.
of the outer planet,
dun planeta exterior,
among the orbits of these planets.
entre a órbita deses planetas.
you can get rhythms, right?
podemos coller ritmos, non?
un planeta dá a volta.
a planet goes around.
that motion up even more,
o movemento aínda máis,
even human-like harmony.
a note for every orbit of each planet,
por cada órbita de planeta
from the system itself.
into the human hearing range.
de audición humana.
for every time two planets align.
cada vez que dous planetas se aliñan.
get close to each other
un empurrón gravitacional.
its light converted into sound.
a súa luz convertida en son.
how this is even possible.
of the analogy of an orchestra.
to start playing in an orchestra,
para tocar nunha orquestra,
aliñados cos do veciño.
with their neighbors' instruments,
co TRAPPIST-1 ao comezo da súa existencia.
to TRAPPIST-1 early in its existence.
ás dos seus veciños
because this system is so compact --
porque o seu sistema é moi compacto
wasn't very finely tuned,
non estivera ben sintonizado,
disrupt each other's orbits,
as órbitas dos outros,
that is keeping this system alive --
a que mantén vivo o sistema
but it's not pretty.
pero non é bonito.
is on a much, much larger scale,
ten unha escala moito maior
near the bottom of our hearing range,
no fondo do noso rango auditivo
to be all the way up
non son moi compactos,
are not very compact --
their orbits to each other,
uns aos outros,
en tempos aleatorios.
their own random note at random times.
movemento planetario.
the laws of planetary motion.
astronomía e xeometría.
between music, astronomy and geometry.
harmony amongst the solar system's planets
musical entre os planetas do sistema solar
had he lived on TRAPPIST-1,
se vivise en TRAPPIST-1,
discovered in January of 2018
descuberto en xaneiro de 2018
they were all finely tuned.
proposta por Pitágoras,
proposed by Pythagoras himself,
named after Kepler,
telescopio espacial Kepler.
is go back in time
they would've sounded like
How far does this go?
ata onde vai isto.
o pasado outono
da Universidade de Toronto
at U of T's planetarium,
named Robyn Rennie and her daughter Erin.
chamada Robyn Rennie e a súa filla Erin.
to fully see it for 13 years
if there was anything I could do.
algo que eu puidese facer.
I could think of from the universe
que se me ocorreron
what became "Our Musical Universe."
o noso universo musical.
baseado no sonido
and harmony of the cosmos.
e a harmonía do cosmos.
by this presentation
representation of her experience.
da súa experiencia
by putting Jupiter on it for the poster.
a Xúpiter para o cartel.
of all vision levels
de todos os niveis de visión
of the universe,
polo universo,
to the edge of the observable universe.
do universo observable.
of a musical odyssey
with new eyes and with new ears,
con novos ollos e novos 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