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Re: the lowest natural sound yet detected

Subject: Re: the lowest natural sound yet detected
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 15:34:48 -0400
Dan Dugan wrote:

> You misunderstand the original evidence. No super-low-frequency
> electromagnetic signal has been detected. What has been seen
> (visually) is waves of compression and rarification in interstellar
> gas. From the photographs the speed and wavelength has been
> calculated. Compression waves in gas are properly described as sound.

Since it was the X-ray observatory, I would think it was not visual
exactly, but observed in the X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

In this case the wavelength given in light years must be the distance
between wave peaks. I expect the rate of travel of this shock wave is
much slower than light, so the wavelength would be much larger.

I wonder how much it's speed would change in intergalactic space as
opposed to interstellar, where the gas is thicker.

Certainly I'd expect it's attenuation with distance to be pretty great.

Walt






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