Ever seen a sonic boom?

February 21, 2001 1:45 PM

Ever seen a sonic boom? A NASA website has daily pictures from a variety of astronomical sources. Today's is a little more down-to-earth; the visual representation of a sonic boom, captured when an F/A-18 Hornet crossed the sound barrier.
posted by dragonmage (8 comments total)

That's pretty interesting. I used to go out to the beach near the airport with my dad in the summer and watch concords take off, but I'd never actually seen the sonic boom.
posted by tomorama at 2:01 PM on February 21, 2001

Here is a link to an mpeg of a jet breaking the sound barrier during a low altitude flyby of an aircraft carrier.
File is about 1.4MB. Via jimwich.
posted by gimli at 2:21 PM on February 21, 2001

THANKS gimli! Now thats cool. (and a fast connection, thats for sure)
posted by tomplus2 at 3:11 PM on February 21, 2001

Wait a minute, I know I've seen this photo before. I know sometimes the APotD is from the archives, but surely they wouldn't reuse one...?
posted by anildash at 3:39 PM on February 21, 2001

That pic turned up last year (I wonder why APOD is just getting around to it now). There was considerable debate about its validity, mostly dispelled by the provenance. A lot of self-styled aerospace experts were certain it had been doctored!
posted by dhartung at 3:40 PM on February 21, 2001

Heh. Simulpost there. Anil, it was widely distributed (newsgroups, e-mail) and definitely blogged several places. It's from a .mil site originally, not NASA, which probably accounts for the delay.
posted by dhartung at 3:42 PM on February 21, 2001

Here is an account of how the photo was taken. Explains the cloud phenomenon and the photographic technique. Also from the jimwich archives (Dec. 2000).
posted by gimli at 4:33 PM on February 21, 2001

apod reuses pictures from time to time, especially when it's related to some sort of anniversary date or something. it's been my home page for a long long time and I've seen several repeats.
posted by rabi at 5:29 PM on February 21, 2001