---
title: "NASA Turns James Webb Images Into Beautiful Music, Uploads It to SoundCloud"
description: "Babe, wake up. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) SoundCloud audio just dropped — and the soundscapes are absolutely beautiful."
date: "2022-09-05"
modified: "2022-09-05"
authors:
  - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-james-webb-music-soundcloud"
categories:
  - "James Webb Space Telescope"
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "james webb space telescope"
  - "JWST"
  - "NASA"
  - "the digest"
---

# NASA Turns James Webb Images Into Beautiful Music, Uploads It to SoundCloud

![Babe, wake up. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) SoundCloud audio just dropped — and the soundscapes are absolutely beautiful.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/nasa-james-webb-music-soundcloud.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA\</em\>*

## NASA Beats

Babe, wake up. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) SoundCloud [just dropped](<https://soundcloud.com/nasa/webbs-carina-nebula-sonification?in=nasa/sets/translating-webb-data-into>).

If you're thinking, "huh, I didn't know telescopes could make music," we understand. It's a two-part effort — the JWST provides the incredible deep space imagery, and then a team of scientists and musicians, along with members of the blind and visually impaired community, collaborate to adapt the photos into extraordinary soundscapes.

"Music taps into our emotional centers," Matt Russo, a musician and physics professor at the University of Toronto, [said in NASA's press release](<https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-webb-s-first-full-color-images-data-are-set-to-sound>). "Our goal is to make Webb's images and data understandable through sound — helping listeners create their own mental images."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9shIxS-W-8&t=27s&ab_channel=JamesWebbSpaceTelescope%28JWST%29

## Audio Picture

According to NASA, the sonifications were conceptualized as a way to ensure that the visual wonders of astronomy are accessible for all to experience. The James Webb has quickly become one absolutely [one of the coolest things](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/james-webb-oldest-galaxy>) that humankind has done so far, and the [imagery it's generated](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/james-webb-cartwheel-galaxy-image>) has captivated imaginations far and wide. By turning its photos into audio clips, the thinking goes, more people than ever will be able to experience them.

"Similar to how written descriptions are unique translations of visual images," said Quyen Hart, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, "sonifications also translate the visual images by encoding information, like color, brightness, star locations, or water absorption signatures, as sounds."

So far, NASA has created audio for a few different JWST images, including the [Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula](<https://soundcloud.com/nasa/webbs-carina-nebula-sonification?in=nasa/sets/translating-webb-data-into>) (an atmospheric, immersive tune, inspired by gauzy clouds of gas and dusty) and the [Southern Ring Nebula](<https://soundcloud.com/nasa/webbs-southern-ring-nebula-sonification>) (a haunting, vacuum-like theme inspired by the body's infrared light).

As it goes without saying, this is a beautiful project. The cosmos belong to everyone — and ensuring [access for all](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-astronaut-indigenous-woman>) is [long overdue](<https://futurism.com/nasa-black-brown-astronauts>).

"When I first heard a sonification, it struck me in a visceral, emotional way," Christine Malec, a member of the blind and low vision community who supports the project, said the press release, "that I imagine sighted people experience when they look up at the night sky."

**READ MORE:** [*Hear Images From NASA's James Webb Telescope as Haunting Music*](<https://www.cnet.com/science/space/hear-images-from-nasas-james-webb-telescope-as-haunting-music/>) \[*CNET*\]

**More on JWST:** [*James Webb Just Took Its First Direct Image of an Exoplanet*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/james-webb-first-direct-image-exoplanet>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride."

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/mharrisondupre.bsky.social>)