8.12.2025
A new symphony based on data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, as well as the James Webb Space Telescope, transforms astronomical observations into music that traces the life cycle of stars.
While there have been many original pieces of music inspired by the heavens, this musical composition is uniquely mapped from data of space. By using data sonifications from Chandra, compiled with Webb data, of both the Crab Nebula and Pillars of Creation (M16), this new composition provides an unprecedented connection to space through music via actual data.
The Crab Nebula (left) from NASA’s Chandra and Webb telescopes is the data behind the piece “Return to Dust” and the Pillars of Creation (M16, right) from Chandra and Webb is the data behind the piece “Cathedrals of Dust & Light”
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of NASA’s “Great Observatories” and has been the world’s premier X-ray telescope for over a quarter century. It also leads in the innovative use of data sonification—the process of converting scientific data into sound.
This new two-part suite by composer Sophie Kastner builds on and pairs with her previous work, “Where Parallel Lines Converge,” which was based on the Chandra data sonification of the Galactic Center. In both the original composition and this latest 2-piece suite, Kastner has created musical vignettes that human musicians can play based on the NASA data and how it is represented in the sonification.
Galactic Center image from NASA’s Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer telescopes drove the creation of the first piece “Where Parallel Lines Converge.”
“I am thrilled to continue working on a project that bridges gaps between science and music” said Kastner. “For these two new pieces, I was inspired by the life cycle of a star, and how new stars are born from matter left over by dying stars.
To create the new suite, Kastner worked closely with Dr. Kimberly Arcand, Chandra visualization scientist, and principal investigator of the sonification program.
“By turning Chandra and other NASA multiwavelength data of the stars into a form that humans can play themselves, we create a connection between people here on Earth to objects in space that are millions of miles away,” said Arcand.
Live audiences were able to enjoy Chandra’s first piece, “When Parallel Lines Converge,” through premieres at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC with the 21st Century Consort, and internationally in Taiwan with the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra.
U.S. premiere in Washington DC (left) and international premiere in Taiwan (right).
Arcand and Kastner are working to schedule performances of this latest composition in 2026 with professional ensembles. They encourage interested musical and art organizations to contact them through the web site listed below.
To see and hear samples, find sheet music of the symphony, and learn more about the sonification project, visit https://chandra.si.edu/sound/symphony.html
Quelle: NASA
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Translating NASA data into compositions
and sheet music that you can play
The Universe of Sound data sonification project started out as a way to translate data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other NASA telescopes into sound, particularly for our community members who are blind or low vision. Working with our partners at SYSTEM Sounds, the project uses mathematical mappings to assign digital sounds to the pixel values of the NASA data (learn more about our sonifications here). A frequent question we get, however, when presenting this sonification work is from musicians who ask if they can play the data. These compositions address that need.
Using data from NASA’s Chandra, Webb, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, we have translated the information into a composition, with sheet music. Working with the composer Sophie Kastner, we have created a soundscape across three movements that can now be played by musicians. We hope you enjoy the free compositions, and please let us know if you are interested in performing this piece professionally with an ensemble.
I approached the form from a different perspective than the original sonifications: rather than scanning the image horizontally and treating the x-axis as time, I instead focused on small sections of the image creating short vignettes corresponding with these occurrences, approaching the piece as if I was writing a film score to accompany the image. Because the Galactic Center image was so full of information, of material, I wanted to draw the listener’s attention to smaller events within the greater data set.
Musical Arrangements
NASA Data from our Milky Way, in Three Movements
Galactic Center: Where Parallel Lines Converge
Where Parallel Lines Converge is a sonic rendering of a composite image of the Galactic Center, or the center of our Milky Way galaxy, with data from NASA’s Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. The piece is a tryptic, highlighting three astronomical objects or moments in the image: the X-ray binary, the arched filaments, and the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. The X-ray binary section is characterized by contrast, how the darkness and the infrared light surround this extremely bright X-ray center. Arched filaments is the softest with a unique, shimmery texture of harmonic glissandos. Sagittarius A* focuses on repetitive, metered gestures that overlap and build, generating a sensation of spiraling toward an epicenter. The piece was conceived using the same principles as the original NASA Chandra data sonifications, converting data to sound by matching different parameters of the image with musical parameters.
Crab Nebula: Return to Dust
In this movement of the symphony titled Return to Dust, we journey into the heart of the Crab Nebula from Chandra & Webb —the brilliant, chaotic remnant of a star’s final moments. The piece opens with the sudden burst of the supernova, noticed by Earth-bound observers in 1054 AD, and conveyed through a percussive strike that sets the stage for what follows. As we dive into the NASA data, layers of flute, clarinet, strings, and shimmering piano recreate the high-speed spin of the pulsar at the Nebula’s core —a neutron star whirling nearly 30 times each second. These rapid, bright figures give way to more forceful percussion, echoing the pulsar’s powerful jets of matter and antimatter launched into surrounding space. A brief stillness follows, marked by resonant chords and darker textures in marimba and lower strings, as the view pulls back to reveal the clouds of dust and gas expanding outward—cosmic debris that will one day help form new stars. The music circles back to the pulsar once more, its relentless spin a reminder of both destruction and renewal in the universe.
Performance at Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra
Pillars of Creation: Cathedrals of Dust and Light
In Cathedrals of Dust and Light, we enter a vast stellar nursery—an awe-inspiring region where stars are born from towering clouds of gas and dust. Translated from the data of the iconic Pillars of Creation, from Chandra & Webb, this movement unfolds in three layered sections, mirroring the complex structures of the nebula itself. Shimmering optical tones evoke the outer clouds—ghostly, sculpted by winds and radiation from older stars that have already ignited. As the music deepens, we journey inward to the dense columns where Evaporating Gas Globules (EGGs) swirl with potential. Through layered harmonies and spiraling rhythms, we hear matter gathering, compressing, heating—gravitational energy building toward ignition. At the center, bursts of bright, high-pitched notes mark the appearance of new stars, as their magnetic fields erupt and jets of matter escape along polar axes, breaking through their dusty cradles. This dynamic cycle, rendered through a shifting blend of pure notes and textured noise, captures the transformation of energy into light, and dust into life. Just as the Crab Nebula marks a star’s end, here we witness a beginning—two cosmic movements bound by a shared truth: from stellar death comes stellar birth.
Quelle: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics