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These maps are grounded in technical accuracy. The sonification of an image of gas and dust in a distant nebula, for instance, uses loud high-frequency sounds to represent bright light near the top of the image, but lower-frequency loud sounds to represent bright light near the image’s centre. The black hole sonification translates data on sound waves travelling through space — created by the black hole’s impact on the hot gas that surrounds it — into the range of human hearing.

Scientists in other fields have also experimented with data sonification. Biophysicists have used it to help students understand protein folding. Aspects of proteins are matched to sound parameters such as loudness and pitch, which are then combined into an audio representation of the complex folding process. Neuroscientists have explored whether it can help with the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease from brain scans. Sound has even been used to describe ecological shifts caused by climate change in an Alaskan forest, with researchers assigning various musical instruments to different tree species.

In the long run, such approaches need to be rigorously evaluated to determine what they can offer that other techniques cannot. For all the technical accuracy displayed in individual projects, the Nature Astronomy series points out that there are no universally accepted standards for sonifying scientific data, and little published work that evaluates its effectiveness.

More funding would help. Many scientists who work on alternative data representations cobble together support from various sources, often in collaboration with musicians or sound engineers, and the interdisciplinary nature of such work makes it challenging to find sustained funding.

On 17 November, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs will highlight the use of sonification in the space sciences in a panel discussion that includes Díaz-Merced and Arcand. This aims to raise awareness of sonification both as a research tool and as a way to reduce barriers to participation in astronomy. It’s time to wholeheartedly support these efforts in every possible way.