SONIC BOOOOOM
Sonic Boom – Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion; typically the shock front may approach 167 megawatts per square meter, and may exceed 200 decibels. Thunder is a type of natural sonic boom, created by the rapid heating and expansion of air.
I just put Losiah to bed for his afternoon nap. Heather was packing her bags to leave for the Porn convention. And BOOOOM. My windows shook. Pictures rattled. I JUMPED up and ran into Losiah’s room. It sounded like his armoire fell over and exploded. It was not like an earthquake. Those are fun. This was a kaboom.
Nothing. I saw nothing.
Then the TV went to a “special report” and Paul Majors gets on and says…”The Space Shuttle Atlantis just reentered the atmosphere and is flying over Riverside, CA heading towards a landing at Edwards Airforce Base. You may have heard 2 distinct explosions as it flew overhead.”
So the BOOOOM was the space shuttle. That is rad.
Below is a pic of a space shuttle producing a sonic boom.
It just gave me a few minutes of that childhood wonder.
Where did that wonder go anyways?
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Shook my house and scared me so bad. Would have never known what it was without this blog…
i heard and felt it too & we were in san diego, i thought it was a bomb!
THAT TOTALLY AWESOME! And I know what you mean about that wonder. It’s kind of sad that we lose it as we grow older.
I felt it over in Costa Mesa. I was sittin’ in my house and my walls and windows started to rattle so I walked out ready to rumble with whoever was shaking my house cause I knew it wasn’t an earthquake. I guess I should apologize to my neighbor for punching him in the face for lying to me. =)
My wife did, but I was on the freeway on my motorcycle – so I didn’t.
If you pay attention in So Cal you can hear that sound more frequently than you might expect. Seems they are always testing something. Although, it’s not usually as pronounced as the shuttle boom. Often times you’ll get a double boom from the shuttle. Kinda cool.
i was outside and must have been right under the thing because it sounded like a bomb and i felt pressure on my back, twice… was so awesome. sound is beautiful. *sniffles*
I suppose Louisiana was just too far away. I know what you mean about wonder though man. 2 nights ago we had a thunderstorm, one of those that you “feel” the thunder and are blinded by the lightening. It was wild. I took my Kiddo out on the back patio and she clutched me with huge big wild eyes as we watched the lightening. It was great!
I thought someone was robbing the upstairs – I ran up there with a boat oar looking like a complete fool going room to room looking for the perpetrator so I could whack him over the head… no masked bandit.
We live by an airport so my next thought was that debri from a plan had somehow crashed into our roof… no signs outside.
It wasn’t until later in the day did I remember the new saying “you might hear a loud boom tomorrow if the shuttle lands in Ca”.
It was more like someone had dropped a safe through the ceiling!
(at the risk of getting blasted: since when does the shuttle land with it’s rocket boosters still attached?)
Hey Los
Didn’t feel it, but here on the East Coast, we have the privilege of watching it launch – even though we’re about 4 hours away, on a beautiful day like this past launch you can see it clear as day from the beach. The previous launch (night launch) was beautiful in the sky just over our house. Haven’t seen such excitement in the sky since GW flew in for the G8 summit a few years ago.
God bless,
Fred