Quick question about the sun

[DwightSchrute]

I was watching the universe TV series today and they said the churning surface of the sun produces a LOT of sound. My question is why does it produce sound? shouldn't there be a vacuum making such a thing impossible?

[Pureblade]

I'm not certain, but the sun could still be producing the sound, it just can't go anywhere. The sound could still travel through the mass of the sun itself, just not through the vacuum surrounding it.

[Flashosaurus]

ive heard through the grapevine that the sun sounds like a little screaming girl

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by Flashosaurus

ive heard through the grapevine that the sun sounds like a little screaming girl

Then shouldn't we call it the daughter?

[x42bn6]

Just because you can't hear it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Earmuffs can prevent sound as can soundproof walls - does that mean that there's no sound beyond those surfaces?

There are sound waves caused by various Sun-related chemical reactions such as fusion, and they do emit "sound" - just that we can't hear it in space. On the other hand, if we got the usual equipment used to detect sound, we would find sound being emitted from the Sun.

Curious About Astronomy: Is there sound coming from the Sun?

*

[Emperor Pan I]

if a tree falls in a vacuum does it make a sound?

[TrongaMonga]

Sound is sort of the energy that particles emit for their vibrations (very, very nubified explanation). But the key word there is particles. Sound requires particles, matter, to exist.

You can be damn sure that the sun has noise, and lots of it. However, in order to hear it, you'd have to be in its atmosphere, or inside one its gigantic protuberances. Once you reach an area which is void of matter, you can't hear a damn thing.

So far, I don't think we've developed any kind of probe that would be able to handle the heat, let alone made the calculations to use the gravity of the sun to make the probe stop at its atmosphere instead of just crashing into the sun.

Easy version: It makes sound, but you can only hear it if you're there.

[x42bn6]

Originally Posted by Emperor Pan I

if a tree falls in a vacuum does it make a sound?

It makes a "sound" but we'd be incapable of hearing it in space.*

[Uncle_Vanya]

Originally Posted by x42bn6

It makes a "sound" but we'd be incapable of hearing it in space.*

Actually it doesn't make a sound, its a vacuum sounds can't exist in a vacuum. The sun doesn't have an atmosphere.

[TrongaMonga]

Yes, it does. And quite a large one. Ever heard of the sun's corona? That's the last layer of it's proximity atmosphere.

Sun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Read a bit.

[x42bn6]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Vanya

Actually it doesn't make a sound, its a vacuum sounds can't exist in a vacuum. The sun doesn't have an atmosphere.

It could emit a "sound" but one would not hear it in space. If, say, we surrounded it in a liquid container and vibrated the tree, we'd "hear" the sound, but we wouldn't hear it through space.

We can still detect the sound waves using various equipments - which was how I assume we detected the Sun making "noise".*

[Vadriel]

All "sound" is is the system through which many of Earth's organisms interpret the vibrations emitted by particles in motion. "Hearing" is basically "reading" a phenomenon that exists in nature so that we can better understand our surroundings. Sight is no different, just a system for interpreting a different medium (energetic particles). Taste is the same thing, it reads certain chemical properties and interprets them in a way that we know as "taste." Smell is actually identical to taste (the actual sensing structures in your nose and taste buds are identical), it's just read slightly differently.

So the question: does the sun actually make sound? Well, does it contain moving particles that vibrate? Yes...yes it does. The only issue is that we're unable to detect those vibrations because unlike the light the sun produces, they are incapable of movement through a vacuum and the "signals" we "read" as "sound" never have a chance to reach our sensory organs. The signals are still there, just not here.

[Gimmi]

Originally Posted by Vadriel

All "sound" is is the system through which many of Earth's organisms interpret the vibrations emitted by particles in motion. "Hearing" is basically "reading" a phenomenon that exists in nature so that we can better understand our surroundings. Sight is no different, just a system for interpreting a different medium (energetic particles). Taste is the same thing, it reads certain chemical properties and interprets them in a way that we know as "taste." Smell is actually identical to taste (the actual sensing structures in your nose and taste buds are identical), it's just read slightly differently.

So the question: does the sun actually make sound? Well, does it contain moving particles that vibrate? Yes...yes it does. The only issue is that we're unable to detect those vibrations because unlike the light the sun produces, they are incapable of movement through a vacuum and the "signals" we "read" as "sound" never have a chance to reach our sensory organs. The signals are still there, just not here.

you are so the man.

[Vadriel]

Noted.