Cosmos is alive with the sound of music; only the dumb will ask, so what?

Listening to the stars sing does not mean lending an ear to celebrities. Science has been saying for quite a while that stars are pretty noisy and the Kepler spacecraft has actually recorded sounds from over 500 sun-like stars, making for a rather weighty cosmic concert album. That a star’s weight and size can be deduced from the sound it makes — the lower the pitch, the bigger the body — adds a practical angle to this discovery. So, the sound emanating from recently discovered gravitational waves on the fabric of space-time created by the collision of two black holes should be a welcome addition to the starry cacophony. The distinct ‘rising whoop’ emanation will obviously not only add to the diversity of the cosmic orchestra but also give scientists further insights into the workings and characteristics of black holes.

There is no doubt both a professional and collective human thrill in detecting a near-imperceptible starry happening a billion light years away in outer space, but those unimpressed by the silent symphony — as most star sounds are not audible to the naked ear — may well wonder about the comparative relevance of scientific discoveries. They might deem the concurrent invention of shoes that can charge mobile phones and laptops to be more useful to humankind. Blame that on smoggy skies.