How does it sound when black holes devour stars for breakfast? Galaxies collide? Suns explode? Ten soundtracks for gazing at the stars

The vastness of the universe has long inspired artists to translate cosmic phenomena into music, even though sound cannot travel in the vacuum of space. Composers from Gustav Holst to David Bowie have explored the cosmos through their art.

Laurie Spiegel, a pioneer of electronic music, delved into Johannes Kepler's theory of "world harmony," which posits that celestial bodies follow musical laws. Spiegel's 1980 piece, "Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds," was included on a golden record sent into space aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 probes in 1977, serving as a cosmic time capsule.

Gustav Holst, though not an astronomer, was fascinated by astrology. His renowned orchestral work "The Planets" (1918) offers musical character studies of the solar system's planets. Notably, the suite has seven movements, as Earth is considered a reference point rather than a planet in astrology. The final movement, dedicated to Neptune, features one of orchestral music's earliest fade-outs, evoking a sense of sounds vanishing into space.

In the 1960s, the space race fueled musical creativity. Joe Meek's 1960 album "I Hear a New World: An Outer Space Music Fantasy" was inspired by the era's fascination with space exploration and the Sputnik 1 satellite. Meek, a visionary producer, experimented with echo chambers, custom effects, and tape manipulation, predating similar innovations by artists like The Beatles and The Beach Boys.