The truth after the famous photo of supersonic explosion

The photo associated with the supersonic explosion and winning many first prizes in photo contests essentially depicts another phenomenon.

According to Popular Mechanics, the famous photograph captures the post-tail cone water column of the US Navy photographer Ensign John Gay in July 1999. So far, the conical cloud in the picture is still explained by a supersonic explosion , a kind of explosion with shock waves, produced when an object moves at a speed faster than the speed of sound (1,225 km / h).

The photo helped Gay overcome more than 42,000 other works and won the first prize in Science and Technology in the framework of the World Press Photo Awards. The photo was also awarded the first prize by the American Photographers Association in the same year.

The conical cloud is made up of evaporation due to flow.(Photo: Ensign John Gay).

According to Atlas Obscura, the phenomenon that Gay captures is " flow-induced vaporization" and the image does not show a supersonic explosion. Evaporation due to flow occurs when a fast moving object creates condensation and distorts the surrounding air.

"It's not the effect of breaking the legendary sound barrier , " said Peter Coen, the supersonic project manager of the US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) at the Langley Research Center in Virginia. determined. Coen uses the word "myth" because before Chuck Yeager first flew an airplane over the speed of sound on March 1, 1947, many believed that the sound barrier caused a plane crash.

According to Sally Bane, an adjunct professor of Aeronautics and Aeronautics at Purdue University, the United States, in addition to high speed, many other factors also affect the appearance of a cone cloud like plane shape and degree moist air.

Since the plane's shape consists of curves, waves formed on the fast-flying F-18 body will lead air flow around many surfaces. The aircraft collided with the first shock wave, accompanied by air pressure and rising temperatures. After that, the expansion wave formed around the wing of the plane, causing the air pressure and temperature to drop sharply. Finally, another shockwave was generated at the tail of the plane.

Without enough moisture in the air, we cannot observe these changes. Thanks to the high humidity, water vapor will condense, allowing a cloud to form while the expansion wave lowers the pressure. The cloud will quickly disappear when it collides with the second shock wave, creating a cone-shaped steam column like in the picture of Gay.