If we could hear the sun, we’d all be deaf, says scientist

From where we stand, our Sun seems quiet. But if space didn’t prevent sound from traveling, the noise it makes would deafen the world!

The sun actually undergoes ferocious convection cycles. Millions of pockets of super-hot gasses – each about the size of Texas – rise and fall in the immense ball of super-heated plasma. These cycles cause huge, sustained explosions.

“That’s an extraordinarily violent process – it would create a tremendous amount of sound,“ says  Heliophysicist Craig DeForest of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

The explosive cacophony falls to about 100 decibels even after traveling about 92 million miles to earth, according to DeForest.

That is equivalent to a rock concert in full swing – only the show never ends. Prolonged exposure to the noise could damage the eardrums, says DeForest.

We’re all lucky the vacuum of space prevents the transmission of sound!