Sonification of TESS data validation timeseries files

Abstract

In August 2022, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will start its fifth year of exploration having observed and analyze more than a million stars in the search of extrasolar planets around both celestial hemispheres. At this time, with 5,767 declared TESS objects of interest (TOI), the total number of confirmed planets that appear in peer-reviewed journals exceeds 220. This article describes the prototype design and domain conversion strategies used for the sonifcation of Data Validation Timeseries (DVT) files from TESS mission. Focused on 132 examples of publicly available lightcurves from stars hosting at least one planet confirmed during the first four years of TESS observations, the resulting proposal allows the multi-modal and multi-channel automatic interactive aural exploration of astronomical variables, generating sequences of complete soundscapes from target variables stored in each DVT file, which can be controlled in terms of complexity and balance. Aesthetics and inspiring aspects of Sonifcation are also open for discussion.