Timeline for What happens when a supersonic airplane flies through a cloud?

7 events

when toggle format	what		by	license	comment
Feb 28, 2012 at 15:42	vote	accept	Aaron Digulla
Feb 28, 2012 at 15:32	comment	added	Mark Beadles		@AaronDigulla It's a cloud layer it is going through...I wouldn't say it's deformed as such; really the effect is sort of like ripples on a pond when you throw a pebble in.
Feb 28, 2012 at 15:31	history	edited	Mark Beadles	CC BY-SA 3.0	added 114 characters in body
Feb 28, 2012 at 15:28	comment	added	Mark Beadles		An Atlas V rocket certainly goes supersonic. If you go to the linked page, you can see that the shocks map to the discontinuities in the rocket surface quite nicely. Also, the shocks are not in front - it's hard to tell but the shocks form a cone behind the rocket. Again, check the linked page for a diagram.
Feb 28, 2012 at 15:21	comment	added	Daniel Chisholm		It doesn't make sense that that rocket was supersonic (one wouldn't see shocks so far in front, nor so numerous, I would think; also the waves are concentric round rings, they do not look like not conical or curved bow shocks). I think it is more likely that the rocket was going at a very high subsonic Mach number when that photo was taken. It's hard to tell the scale but if ring 1 was 50m in front and ring 11 was 120m in front, that would suggest that ring 11 was emitted about a quarter of a second before ring 1 was...?
Feb 28, 2012 at 14:43	comment	added	Aaron Digulla		Very interesting answer. Is the cloud deformed that gets pierced by the rocket?
Feb 28, 2012 at 1:32	history	answered	Mark Beadles	CC BY-SA 3.0