Newly formed black holes ring out a strange, pure music, and soon we may be able to experience it
If mature black holes had personalities, they would be extremely introverted. They don’t let anything out – not light, not particles, and certainly not music.
Hawking radiation is a fascinating exception to this rule, but for astrophysical black holes, it is a tiny effect.
But before they settle down, during their brief but wild youth, newly formed black holes ring out a strange, pure music. It would be beautiful to experience, and soon we will be able to do it.
When a new black hole is formed, say by collapse of a star or by fusion of other objects such as neutron stars or smaller black holes, the material that produced it gets swallowed up. Once that material passes beyond the newly formed event horizon, no trace of it remains perceptible.
