bow shock

[bou]

noun

Astronomy.

1. the shock front along which the solar wind encounters a planet's magnetic field.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bow shock¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

In this process, a bow shock may have formed at the top of the cluster from the dust surrounding the cluster, similar to the tip of a ship in the water.

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I quickly realized that the distance of these dark objects must have been incorrectly overestimated by an order of magnitude, or else their bow shock in the Earth's atmosphere would have generated a bright fireball with an easily detectable optical luminosity.

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I showed that an object with a frontal cross-sectional area of 10 square meters, moving at a supersonic speed of 10 kilometers per second must create a bow shock in the Earth's atmosphere and dissipate a mechanical power of 1.5 terrawatts at an elevation of 10 kilometers.

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“As it’s moving through the gas at supersonic speeds, it drives a bow shock,” says Steven Desch, an astrophysicist from Arizona State University.

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As it hurtles through space at 24 kilometres per second it creates a bow shock — a set of glowing ripples produced when hot stellar winds collide with the surrounding dust.

Read more on Nature