Planethesizer: Approaching exoplanet sonification
Abstract
The creation of simulations, sounds and images based on
information related to an object of investigation is currently a
real tool used in multiple areas to bring the non-specialized
public closer to scientific achievements and discoveries. Under
this context of multimodal representations and simulations
developed for educational and informational purposes, this
work intends to build a bridge between virtual musical
instruments’ development and physical models, using the
gravitation laws of the seven planets orbiting around the
Trappist-1 star. The following is a case study of an
interdisciplinary conversion algorithm design that relates
musical software synthesis to exoplanets’ astronomical data -
measured from the observed flux variations in the light curves
of their star- and that tries to suggest a systematic and
reproducible method, useful for any other planetary system or
model-based virtual instrument design. As a result, the Virtual
Interactive Synthesizer prototype Planethesizer is presented,
whose default configurations display a multimodal Trappist-1,
Kepler-444 and K2-72 planetary systems simulation.