Engine plumes (Split from AMA questions)
Just FYI your screenshot looks like it was taken on the Mun. As an aerospace engineer, you should know plume expansion changes based on ambient pressure - an underexpanded exhaust at ASL will not be underexpanded in a vacuum - in fact all engines in a vacuum will be overexpanded, as you will never have an infinitely-long nozzle.
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MODERATOR NOTE:
This thread was split off from:
the point of that second post was to show that no, the expected behavior for an underexpanded engine is *not* what we see in the game. While yes, it does expand the lower the surrounding pressure gets, the geometry/shape should not change entirely:
as you can see here, the plume shape IRL is parabolic, and while yes it does expand as it gets further from the engine, this "rate" of expansion should slows down to create that parabolic arch (shown in the bottom left). Instead, it seems to expa
