{"id":213703,"url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/213703-triple-shockwave-from-sun-crossing-rocket","short_url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/213703","headline":"Triple Shockwave from Sun Crossing Rocket","content":"\u003cp\u003eNASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat's happening to this Sun-crossing rocket?  The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, visible on the upper left, launched only about one minute before this amazing image was captured.  As it rose to low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA,  in late May, the rocket became supersonic before it crossed the disk of the distant Sun -- from the perspective of the well-placed photographer.  The spacecraft's high speed caused bow-shaped compressed-air shockwaves to form across leading surfaces, with at least three visible even outside the Sun's disk because they refract sunlight.  The trailing exhaust caused turbulence visible on the lower right. None of this was damaging to the robotic Starlink 10-53 mission, which delivered 29 communications satellites to low Earth orbit as planned.  And if that isn't amazing enough - the Sun had spots!    Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after 1995)\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto by John Winkopp  \n(WAI Media)\u003c/p\u003e","content_plain":"NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:\n\nWhat's happening to this Sun-crossing rocket?  The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, visible on the upper left, launched only about one minute before this amazing image was captured.  As it rose to low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA,  in late May, the rocket became supersonic before it crossed the disk of the distant Sun -- from the perspective of the well-placed photographer.  The spacecraft's high speed caused bow-shaped compressed-air shockwaves to form across leading surfaces, with at least three visible even outside the Sun's disk because they refract sunlight.  The trailing exhaust caused turbulence visible on the lower right. None of this was damaging to the robotic Starlink 10-53 mission, which delivered 29 communications satellites to low Earth orbit as planned.  And if that isn't amazing enough - the Sun had spots!    Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after 1995)\n\n\nPhoto by John Winkopp  \n(WAI Media)","published_at":"2026-06-15T14:16:31-07:00","updated_at":"2026-06-16T10:40:57-07:00","author":{"type":"Person","name":"Specola","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/profiles/298285-specola"},"description":"Stay up-to-date with Specola on Kudos 365. View their photo published Jun/15/2026 on Science - Tech - Astronomy. Browse your favorite topics and share your expertise, too.","type":"photo","image":"https://k365pi.imgix.net/site/apod/generated/da6e1064-206c-41bf-8e62-bb7dbd03fe81.jpg?auto=compress,format\u0026fit=max\u0026w=1200\u0026h=1200\u0026q=48","likes_count":5,"comments_count":2,"categories":[{"name":"Science - Tech - Astronomy","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/categories/986-science-tech-astronomy"}],"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"CreativeWork","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/213703-triple-shockwave-from-sun-crossing-rocket","headline":"Triple Shockwave from Sun Crossing Rocket","image":"https://k365pi.imgix.net/site/apod/generated/da6e1064-206c-41bf-8e62-bb7dbd03fe81.jpg?auto=compress,format\u0026fit=max\u0026w=1200\u0026h=1200\u0026q=48","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Specola","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/profiles/298285-specola"},"datePublished":"2026-06-15T14:16:31-07:00","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/LikeAction","userInteractionCount":5},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1}],"subjectOf":[{"@type":"Thing","name":"Science - Tech - Astronomy","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/categories/986-science-tech-astronomy"}]}}