Fun Science Fact: Black Holes Sound Like The Evil Aliens From 'Mass Effect'

Science youtube channels spent decades teaching us that space battles don't sound like Star Wars battles because Star Wars probably isn't real and because we can't record sound in space, but it turns out they might be wrong about all of that. Yeah, NASA Exoplanets, the NASA division that seemingly exists to get the attention of predatory alien civilizations that will eat us all revealed that galaxy clusters have enough gas to allow sound waves to travel, and thus create sounds that we can kind of record.

They then backed that up with a recording of the least spooky thing one can find in space: a black hole.

Full disclaimer here: NASA admits that's not exactly what the black hole sounds like, but rather a mix between the recording and other data -- think the usage of frog DNA to create the totally unproblematic dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It's less of a recording, more of a “sonification”, or an AI-fueled reinterpretation that makes it audible for human beings. This is particularly interesting because it sounds a lot like not just stuff that we've been hearing in games for a while, but in video games that are about space exploration, no less. We invite our readers to give a listen to “The Uncertainty Principle” from the Outer Wilds and dare them to say it doesn't sound pretty similar.

And anyone who clicked on this piece because they were looking for heartwarming space video game facts should perhaps go read another article because that's where the wholesome part ends. While everyone was gushing about the newfound space music, a Twitter user was very quick to point out that the black hole also sounds a lot like the Reapers from Mass Effect, an alien race hellbent on destroying sentient life in the Universe.