Hear the Eerie Sounds of Nebula NGC 2392

Sonification of Nebula NGC 2392

NGC 2392 is a bipolar double-shell planetary nebula.

About 5,000 light-years from Earth, the stunning nebula NGC 2392 formed after the demise of a star like our Sun.

In this sonification, the image is scanned clockwise like a radar. The radius is mapped to pitch, so light farther from the center is higher pitched. The outline of the nebula’s shell can be heard in the rising and falling of pitch, punctuated by its spokes. Brightness controls the volume.


Sonification credit: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

NGC 2392, known as the Eskimo Nebula, Clown-faced Nebula, Lion Nebula, or Caldwell 39, is a double-shelled planetary nebula, with the more distant gas having composed the outer layers of a Sun-like star only 10,000 years ago. The outer shell contains unusual light-year-long orange filaments. The visible inner filaments are being ejected by a strong wind of particles from the central star. The NGC 2392 Nebula spans about 1/3 of a light year and lies in our Milky Way Galaxy, about 3,000 light years distant from Earth, toward the constellation of the Twins (Gemini).

To some, the huge NGC 2392 nebula resembles a person’s head surrounded by a parka hood, hence the Eskimo Nebula nickname. In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered this unusual planetary nebula. More recently, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the nebula in visible light, while the nebula was also imaged in X-rays by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The featured combined visible-X ray image, shows X-rays emitted by central hot gas in pink. The nebula displays gas clouds so complex that they are not fully understood.

6 Comments on "Hear the Eerie Sounds of Nebula NGC 2392"

  1. Hi, are there any links as sources? Where did you get this information?

  2. Sherri Hudson | June 26, 2022 at 4:19 am | Reply

    I like the sound that the planet made that’s very interesting

  3. There’s no sound in space. This is an arbitrary bunch of nonsense.

  4. Cynthia Binder | June 28, 2022 at 3:12 pm | Reply

    Magical of magnetic power 🔋 no magic at all. Sound thats all. Spiritual i think it said fuel is gone.vacuum of space. Day off everyone. Oh Charlie 🪐no imagation. Smile opinion ☺ 😊 😄

  5. Cynthia Binder | June 28, 2022 at 3:25 pm | Reply

    Other comment is ☆it used to be a sun 🌞 like our own ♡●. Those little ● circles surrounding the light n orange, pink gas clouds might have been planets like earth mer,ven,mars,Jupiter, sat,Uranus Neptune etc and the boundary ice rocks oh those are gone. Words read💼not classified anymore.

  6. Star shopping | June 30, 2022 at 2:45 am | Reply

    Wait?! Sound waves can’t travel through space? Like Idk guy, I never been there so I can’t say your wrong! I just love it so much it just feels right in my soul the stars and all the nebulas and multiverses and how it’s all going away from us faster and faster…I just want to….. catch it!! So I’d like to imagine I could and hearing that star sing like a bird while I run after ♾️ Well that’s Heaven Charlie! There is sound in space in my life

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