Credit: Milton Van Dyke, photograph by A. C. Charters
A sphere moving through the air at Mach 1.5. The leading shock wave, or bow shock, created by a sphere or another blunt shape (like an Apollo spacecraft or a Space Shuttle reentering the atmosphere) remains detached from the object. A second shock wave forms farther back, attached to the sphere itself, where the airflow separates from the surface and forms a turbulent wake.
Categories:
Aerodynamics, Supersonic flight