Sound is a mechanical vibration that needs matter—such as air, water or solid material—to pass the disturbance along. Spacecraft can still detect radio waves and vibrations carried through their own structures, but those are not sound travelling through empty space.
What we found
Films often add explosions in space because silence would feel strange. In reality, a nearby observer in vacuum would not hear pressure waves through empty space. Instruments can convert electromagnetic signals or plasma waves into audio so humans can study them. Those “sounds of space” are useful representations, not direct air vibrations reaching a microphone. The Ridbusters then compare the wording with the original sources, look for the conditions of each observation and check whether another explanation could fit. That turns a surprising headline into a trail a young investigator can follow: claim, test, result and remaining uncertainty. Sound is a mechanical vibration that needs matter—such as air, water or solid material—to pass the disturbance along.