Exoplanet Puzzle Cracked by Jazz Musicians

There’s more than one way to appreciate the results. While Tamayo was working on his simulations, he was approached by Matt Russo, a fellow postdoc and jazz guitarist who thought the TRAPPIST-1 resonances looked familiar from music theory. Now, coordinated with the release of Tamayo’s paper, Russo, Tamayo and the musician Andrew Santaguida have teamed up to translate the system’s intricate arrangement of passing worlds into a musical composition.

The seventh planet, h, orbits about once every three weeks. Sped up some 200 million times and expressed in sound waves, that frequency is a C note. From there, the known ratios between planets determine every other planet’s signature note. Together the notes form a major ninth chord. “It’s really remarkable that it worked out like that,” Russo said. “Even with a different pattern of resonances, you wouldn’t get a chord that sounds as good.”

4 thoughts on “Exoplanet Puzzle Cracked by Jazz Musicians

  1. dbati

    Oh, I’m still reading…rarely commenting. You should put up another of your music quizzes!

    Hope you’re well.

    1. cleek Post author

      You should put up another of your music quizzes!

      i actually had the same idea, a few days ago.

      lemme think on it.

Comments are closed.