The black hole sound effect grew with the wave of space memes after the first real black hole image from the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019, and the viral NASA sonification of a black hole's pressure waves in 2022. Editors on TikTok and YouTube Shorts pair deep suction rumbles with clips of people, pets and objects spiralling into a vortex, captioned as being pulled into the void. At barely a second long it works as a reusable transition, and it resurfaces whenever a new space story trends.