# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DGg2FiBTl2r
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/26910070-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/9099b04572.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-02-25T22:51:31.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Pressure creates diamonds 💎⁣⁣
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Our X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft recently successfully completed a series of engine performance tests while at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. During maximum afterburner testing – a test that demonstrates the engine’s ability to create the thrust needed for supersonic flight – a photographer caught a cool visual phenomenon in the X-59’s exhaust called Mach diamonds. Also known as shock diamonds, Mach diamonds occur when the pressure of the gases exiting the nozzle is less than the ambient air pressure.⁣⁣
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One of the major problems with commercial supersonic flight is the loudness of a sonic boom. The X-59 is the centerpiece of @NASAaero’s Quesst mission, which seeks to reduce that boom to a gentle “thump.” Designing and building the X-59 was one of the Quesst mission’s goals; the other is to fly the X-59 over several U.S. communities, gather data on public responses to the sound, and deliver that data to national and international regulators.⁣⁣
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Image description: The tail of NASA’s X-59 aircraft sticks out of a hangar, at left. Bright, fiery exhaust in shades of blue, purple, and orange extends from the tail. Mach diamonds are visible in the superhot plume.⁣⁣
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Credit: Lockheed Martin/Gary Tice⁣⁣
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#NASA #Supersonic #Aviation #AvGeek #Aeronautics

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## Tags

nasa, aeronautics, aviation, avgeek, supersonic

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