NASA missiles create sound waves that break down the rainbow

Extremely intense sound waves from NASA missiles spread out four sides, causing the rainbow in the sky to disappear in the blink of an eye.

With engine booms of up to 200 decibels, exceeding 80 dB above the human hearing threshold, the rocket emitted sound waves strong enough to shake the buildings, causing the hair of the standing to catch fire and blow the rainbow. in the sky. The video posted on social networking site Reddit on July 10 is an example, according to Live Science.

Shot during the launch of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft on February 11, 2010, the video perfectly illustrates what happens due to the intense shockwave from missiles colliding with a semi-solid environment, in this case. is a delicate ice crystal screen very high above the launch pad. When the crystals line up, they create a separate rainbow trail called (sundog).

The rainbow floats in the upper right corner of the sky until the missile destroys it."When missiles penetrate the cirrus cloud, shock waves spread through the cloud and destroy the alignment of the ice crystals , " explained Les Cowley, an atmospheric optics expert.

In any case, missiles do not need to reach supersonic speeds to produce destructive sound.

The missile in the video does not move at the supersonic speed, because if so, the shockwave will appear behind the rocket in the form of a cone, not firing forward like ripples. In any case, missiles do not need to reach supersonic speeds to produce destructive sound. Even in the early stages of the take-off process, the missiles hardly move, but the engine burns and can see sound waves spreading through the smoke with decibels exceeding the resistance of the eardrum and the house.

"When the rocket departed, the main engine called out so loudly that the person near the launcher could lose his life, not by the heat of the smoke but by the engine sound," Rodney Rocha, engineer at Johnson Space Center NASA's Houston, said. A strong sound pressure can tighten the lungs, cause congestion in the heart or brain, leading to heart attack, seizures, and respiratory failure.

NASA water spray test to reduce noise in launchers.(Video: YouTube).

NASA engineers attach great importance to dealing with the threat of sound waves and always try to suppress the sound waves produced by missiles in many ways. One of them is spraying hundreds of thousands of liters of water or mist on the launch pad immediately after the rocket takes off. This artificial flood could reduce the noise in the launch pad, preventing the rocket's jarring pressure waves from bouncing off the ground and breaking the spacecraft.