What’s The Loudest Sound In The Universe?

The human tolerance for sound is, on a galactic level, puny. Volcano eruptions, jackhammer-intensive construction work, My Bloody Valentine concerts, these tinnitus-inducing phenomena are barely whispers besides the majestic, roiling bursts and collisions going on in outer space.

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If two galaxies colide in outer space and there are nobody there to hear it, do they even make a sound?

By its very definition, the loudest sound in the universe is terrestrial in nature, as that is where people are.

surely any parent of a young infant can tell you

SCIENCE said:

surely any parent of a young infant can tell you

There must be some weird connection between your own child’s sound and anyone else’s. I can deal with the hundred screaming children at the zoo, but my own screaming child sends me into a zone of weirdness. Even the sound of a teenager that belongs to you is different to any other… stupid genetics and survival impulses.

Dark Orange said:

If two galaxies colide in outer space and there are nobody there to hear it, do they even make a sound?

By its very definition, the loudest sound in the universe is terrestrial in nature, as that is where people are.

I’d say hypernova, wouldn’t you? The hypernova is full of gas, so there’s no worry about whether you call it a “sound”.

But let’s think some more. We could say that the loudest sound is the sound in a material with the greatest strength, such as diamond-like carbon. There, the region of loud sound would be very small, but in a very small volume the sound would be very loud.