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LOWEST NOTE POSSIBLE: INFRASOUND ON A COSMIC SCALE
A huge pipe organ can produce infrasound. An infrasound frequency is so slow that it sounds like a gigantic cat purring. You feel the sound it more than you hear it. (When it stops purring, you worry.)
In nature, tornados and storms generate infrasound.
But if you want the most “infra” of infrasound, you have to listen to the stars. Some clever astronomers claim to have discovered the lowest note in the universe. It’s coming from a black hole in the Perseus galaxy cluster, roughly 250 million light years from earth.
And what is that note, exactly?
Why, it’s B♭, 57 octaves below the B♭ nearest Middle C on the piano.
If you wanted to duplicate that B♭ here on Earth, you’d have to build a gigantic piano. If you succeeded in building a big enough piano, and then you hit that low B♭, you’d have to wait 10 million years for the first sound wave to complete its cycle. And, of course, you wouldn’t be able to hear the sound because it would be about 53 octaves below the threshold of human hearing.