What Does a Black Hole Collision Sound Like?

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

For centuries, the primary way that astronomers studied outer space was through sight. But just ten years ago, scientists successfully established a way to ‘listen’ to our cosmos – detecting gravitational waves created by huge cosmic events that took place billions of light years away. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce explains how scientists detect those gravitational waves, what kind of cosmic events we’re detecting now, and what they could tell us about our universe.

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Transcript

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0:41.2	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:45.8	Hey, shortwavers, it's Regina Barber, and this week marks a very special anniversary in the
0:50.8	world of physics.
0:52.2	It's the 10th anniversary of a chirp. The chirp heard around the
0:56.2	world. Did you hear it? I'll play it for you again. That is a gravitational wave.
1:07.1	Physicists have converted it to sound waves so our ears can hear it. It may sound cute and maybe like a sonogram, but don't be fooled.
1:14.6	Gravitational waves are produced by some of the most extreme violent events in our universe,
1:19.6	like colliding black holes or two neutron stars smashing into each other.
1:23.9	And the existence of these waves was first predicted by Albert Einstein over a century ago.
1:28.4	Yeah, but he thought no one would ever detect them.
	...

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