WEBVTT - Could You Hear In Space?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum. Here You're sitting in a movie theater watching

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<v Speaker 1>the latest sci fi action film. The screen is filled

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<v Speaker 1>with an intense space battle. The theater booms with other

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<v Speaker 1>worldly noises. Is ship engines roar and wine, A laser's

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<v Speaker 1>hum in your seat rumbles? Is? Spacecraft explode left and right?

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<v Speaker 1>But if you were really able to watch the battle

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<v Speaker 1>in person, would you be able to hear anything at all?

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<v Speaker 1>If we look to science fiction films for the answer,

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<v Speaker 1>we get conflicting results. The tagline for the film Alien

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<v Speaker 1>was in space, no one can hear you scream, but

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<v Speaker 1>the film actually depicts noisy spaceships. A few examples, like

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<v Speaker 1>the film two thousand and one, A Space Odyssey and

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<v Speaker 1>the TV series Firefly have silent space scenes, but it's

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<v Speaker 1>more common in space fiction, like most of Star Wars

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<v Speaker 1>and Star Trek, to have dozens of scenes that combine

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<v Speaker 1>action and outer space with nifty sound effects. So which

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<v Speaker 1>fictional universe should we believe? Would you be unable to

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<v Speaker 1>hear the Enterprise if zipped right past you? Would the

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<v Speaker 1>destruction of the Death Star be completely silent? To get

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<v Speaker 1>to the bottom of this question, we need to look

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<v Speaker 1>at two important factors, how sound travels and what's actually

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<v Speaker 1>out there in space. A sound travels in mechanical waves.

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<v Speaker 1>A mechanical wave is a disturbance that moves and transports

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<v Speaker 1>energy from one place to another through a medium. In sound,

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<v Speaker 1>the disturbance is a vibration, and the medium can be

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<v Speaker 1>any series of interconnected and interactive particles. That means that

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<v Speaker 1>sound can travel through gases, liquids, and solids. For example,

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<v Speaker 1>imagine a church bell. When a bell rings, it vibrates,

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<v Speaker 1>a meaning the bell itself flexes inward and outward very rapidly.

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<v Speaker 1>As the bell moves outward, it pushes against the bits

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<v Speaker 1>of air immediately surrounding it. As we've talked about on

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<v Speaker 1>the show, air might seem like nothing to us, but

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<v Speaker 1>it's actually a sort of soup of particles and molecules.

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<v Speaker 1>So those air bits touching the bell then push against

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<v Speaker 1>other adjacent air bits and so on. Then, as the

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<v Speaker 1>bell flexes inward, it pulls against the adjacent air particles,

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<v Speaker 1>and they in turn pull against other air particles. This

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<v Speaker 1>push and pull pattern is a sound wave. The vibrating

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<v Speaker 1>bell is the original disturbance, and the air particles are

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<v Speaker 1>the medium through which the vibration travels. But sound isn't

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<v Speaker 1>restricted to moving through the air. Let's say you press

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<v Speaker 1>your ear against a solid surface like a table and

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<v Speaker 1>close your eyes. Then someone taps their finger at the

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<v Speaker 1>other end of the table. The tapping becomes the initial disturbance.

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<v Speaker 1>Each tap sends vibrations through the table, and the particles

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<v Speaker 1>in the table collide with each other and become the

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<v Speaker 1>medium for the sound wave. The particles and table collide

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<v Speaker 1>with the rim of your ear, so you might feel

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<v Speaker 1>the vibration in your ear or the rest of your head,

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<v Speaker 1>But they'll also collide with air particles trapped between the

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<v Speaker 1>table and your ear drum inside your ear. The ear

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<v Speaker 1>drum is also known as your ear's tympanic membrane. When

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<v Speaker 1>air particles hit it, this sets off a series of

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<v Speaker 1>vibrations in several structures inside the ear. The brain interprets

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<v Speaker 1>these vibrations as sounds. Basically, how hearing works is a

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<v Speaker 1>different episode. Okay, so sound needs a physical medium in

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<v Speaker 1>order to travel anywhere. Is there enough physical material in

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<v Speaker 1>space to act as a medium for sound waves. Before

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<v Speaker 1>we begin to talk about space, we should probably define

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<v Speaker 1>it because there's a lot of it out there and

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<v Speaker 1>it's not uniform. For the purposes of this discussion, will

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<v Speaker 1>consider space to be the region of the universe outside

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<v Speaker 1>of Earth's atmosphere. You've probably heard that space is a vacuum.

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<v Speaker 1>A true vacuum refers to the complete absence of matter,

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<v Speaker 1>but space contains stars, planets, asteroids, moons, comets, dust, which

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<v Speaker 1>is all a lot of matter. But space is still

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<v Speaker 1>considered a vacuum, or technically a near vacuum because space

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<v Speaker 1>is big of planets can be millions of miles apart,

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<v Speaker 1>and solar systems can have billions of miles between them.

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<v Speaker 1>This empty space, sometimes called interstellar space, is practically devoid

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<v Speaker 1>of all matter, and again, sound waves can only travel

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<v Speaker 1>through matter. In interstellar space, the distance between particles is

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<v Speaker 1>so great that they would never collide with each other.

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<v Speaker 1>Even if you could get a front seat for the

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<v Speaker 1>explosion of the dust star, you wouldn't hear anything at all.

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<v Speaker 1>That being said, there are a few arguments one could make.

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<v Speaker 1>Radio waves can travel through space. So if you're wearing

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<v Speaker 1>a space suit that contains a radio unit and one

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<v Speaker 1>of your buddies sends you a radio message there is

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<v Speaker 1>fresh pizza in the space station. You'd be able to

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<v Speaker 1>hear it. That's because radio waves aren't mechanical, they're electromagnetic.

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<v Speaker 1>Electromagnetic waves can transmit energy through a vacuum. Once your

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<v Speaker 1>radio receives a signal, it can convert it into sound,

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<v Speaker 1>which will travel through the air in your spacesuit without

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<v Speaker 1>a problem. Or let's say that you're drifting through space

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<v Speaker 1>while wearing a spacesuit and you accidentally bump your helmet

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<v Speaker 1>into the Hubble space telescope. The collision would make a

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<v Speaker 1>sound that you could hear even though you're in space.

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<v Speaker 1>That's because the sound waves would have a physical medium

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<v Speaker 1>to move through your helmet and the air inside your spacesuit.

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<v Speaker 1>You'd still be surrounded by a vacuum, so an independent

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<v Speaker 1>observer wouldn't be able to hear anything, no matter how

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<v Speaker 1>many times you had but a satellite. Or imagine you're

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<v Speaker 1>an astronaut on a mission at the International Space Station.

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<v Speaker 1>You've decided to step out into space, but forgot to

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<v Speaker 1>put on your spacesuit first. You press your ear against

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<v Speaker 1>the station, you won't have any air in your ear,

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<v Speaker 1>so you couldn't hear In the traditional sense. However, you

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<v Speaker 1>make out a few sounds through bone conduction, in which

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<v Speaker 1>sound waves travel through the bones of the jaw and

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<v Speaker 1>skull to the inner ear bypassing the ear drum. There's

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<v Speaker 1>no need for air, so you could hear your fellow

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<v Speaker 1>astronauts partying inside the shuttle for about fifteen seconds. After that,

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<v Speaker 1>you'd likely be unconscious and on your way to dead.

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<v Speaker 1>So yes, despite the wisdom of Hollywood filmmakers, it's impossible

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<v Speaker 1>to hear noises in space. We suggest the next time

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<v Speaker 1>that you watch a science fiction film you plug your

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<v Speaker 1>ears up whenever anything happens within the vacuum of space.

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<v Speaker 1>It'll make the film seem more realistic and probably work

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<v Speaker 1>as a great conversational topic with your friends once the

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<v Speaker 1>movie's over. Today's episode is based on the article can

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<v Speaker 1>humans here in Space? On how stuffworks dot com written

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<v Speaker 1>by Jonathan Strickland. Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with how stuffworks dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.