SEEING SUPERSONIC
© NASA
NASA captured this image of the shock waves from two US Air Force Test Pilot School T-38 aircraft flying around nine metres away from one another back in 2019. Both supersonic planes were travelling past the speed of sound and produced deafening ‘supersonic boom’ shock waves, shown as the dark lines. The image was originally monochromatic – taken using the Schlieren photography technique, which can visualise the flow of air from the surface of an object – then colourised. Highlighting the waves in this way helps researchers to understand how shock waves interact with aircraft and other shock waves.