We tend think of space as an eerily silent darkness. And in a way that is correct as sound waves cannot propagate in a vacuum, and many of the comments below the video allude precisely to this quandary. Another points that elicits some inquietude is the fact that light is incapable of escaping black holes given of course the intensity of their gravitational pull. So, how can any sound -whose velocity is much less than that of light- emerge from their collisions?
Levin helpfully elucidates her critics via a comment stating that:
The medium is spacetime. It can ring like a drum -- a three-dimensional drum.
These are not "sound waves" but "gravitational waves". The waves in space itself can be measured, soon we hope, and those waveforms plugged into a stereo to generate actual sound
I'm no expert in the field so I still have my doubts, not necessarily about the veracity of her claims but as to the process behind it. All in all, however, it was a mesmerizing lecture and I recommend it fully.
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