From the brains behind Brains-On, this is The Moment of Um.

Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom.

Um.

I'm reorganizing the mystery sound storage room here at Brains on headquarters.

There are hundreds of sounds here, all stored in nifty little jars.

Here, check this one out.

That's the sound of someone making a balloon animal shaped like a giraffe. Or this one.

That's some sea lions talking about the most recent season of The Bachelor.

Ooh, this is one of my favorites.

The sound of a perfectly crispy, gooey, grilled cheese.

Hmm.

Wait, what's this box back here?

Oh, it's all dusty. Oh, it's all dusty. Hmm, it's labeled universe sounds.

Hang on, I thought there was no sound in space.

You know, sound is made by tiny particles called molecules vibrating and moving through air, water, or other stuff.

Most of space is so big and empty, so there's not a lot of stuff around that can carry those sounds.

So wouldn't space be silent?

What's in these jars?

My friend Olive was curious about this, too.

Hello, my name is Olive from Vancouver, Washington.

My question is, does the universe make a sound?

I love that question. My name is Dr. Kimberly Arcant, and I'm a visualization scientist for NASA's Chandar Ekfee Observatory at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. And really all that means is that I just get to take data of the universe and tell a story with it.

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