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No, it's a misnomer as with any other meteor. If you were to witness the breakup from the bolide's reference frame and without all the rushing air you'd never
by jojobas 5mo ago
No, it's a misnomer as with any other meteor.
If you were to witness the breakup from the bolide's reference frame and without all the rushing air you'd never call it an explosion.
- margalabargala 5mo ago> and without all the rushing air That's the exploding bit though. You don't need containment, you just need the the airburst. A hyper-heated pocket of air that then expands rapidly is itself an explosion.
- jojobas 5mo ago>then expands rapidly Except it doesn't. The breakup has roughly the same dynamics as dirt spreading as it gets out of a tip truck. The shockwave is not produced by the outward motion, it barely has any speed.
- margalabargala 5mo agoYou're conflating the outward motion of the rock with the outward motion of the air. The shockwave is traveling at the speed of sound.