Would Superman Make A Plasma Exhaust Trail If He Went Too Fast Through The Atmosphere?

[Spacescifi]

Curious... since the streak of fire seen on spacecraft during reentry is from the ablation of the craft's heat absorbent disposable surface.

Superman does not ablate and neither does his costume, in fact he has his own kind of forcefield aura that not only keeps him clean from bugs gunking up his suit, but also from melting from heat.

So if Superman goes supersonic in atmosphere, I imagine he would look like a blue whitish fireball.

Why blue? Ionizing the air from the heat, and no mass is being ablated, just a lot of air being compressed and released really fast.

Superman basically turned himself into a ramjet no?

Flying low doing this will make people mad, since the constant sonic boom will shatter or crack windows as he passes overhead.

So flying suborbital into space before reentry would be the ideal way for Superman to fly, but I suppose in desperate situations he might make exceptions.

Curiously this is much the same scenario if a scifi ship with the classic forcfield bubble was hitting atmosphere and blocking it with the shield.

The shield would not leave any sort of ablation streak unless it was actually ablating (and typically they don't since that's the whole point if having a forcefield).

If flying fast enough I presume you would get a blue whiteish ionized plasma fireball streaking through the air here as well.

Edited April 27 by Spacescifi

[DDE]

51 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

Curious... since the streak of fire seen on spacecraft during reentry is from the ablation of the craft's heat absorbent disposable surface.

It doesn't. The primary source is compressive heating of the air in front of the object.

So, to answer your question, he would.

[Spacescifi]

44 minutes ago, DDE said:

It doesn't. The primary source is compressive heating of the air in front of the object.

So, to answer your question, he would.

So you are saying he would still look like a fireball?

Why would he look like an orange or yellow fireball though?

Are you saying thst when air is compressed and heated to a high degree it looks like a fireball regardless if any ablation of mass is taking place?

[RCgothic]

There are a number of things in comics universes that are effectively magic. Like punching or throwing things without equal and opposite reaction. In reality he would leave a brightly glowing fireball, but if he doesn't then just chalk it up as one of his necessary secondary powers 

[tater]

I suggest the essay by Larry Niven: Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

It's on his website to read if you dig around. https://www.larryniven.net/

 

[Spacescifi]

2 hours ago, RCgothic said:

There are a number of things in comics universes that are effectively magic. Like punching or throwing things without equal and opposite reaction. In reality he would leave a brightly glowing fireball, but if he doesn't then just chalk it up as one of his necessary secondary powers 

I get that... but would it be an orange/yellow fireball streaking through the sky or a blue one?

I know the color of a fireball hints at how much energy at times is being emitted.

If it was his cousin, especially the one from the 2005-2011 era, she would probably be a blue fireball at some point (shows less restraint using her powers to the point that people say and think she's both stronger and faster than he is).

27 minutes ago, tater said:

I suggest the essay by Larry Niven: Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

It's on his website to read if you dig around. https://www.larryniven.net/

 

I have... it's a nightmare. Clark would either be forced to stay a virgin or romance any female kryptonian villain he found stuck in the phantom zone... or his own family. At least Powergirl comes from an alternate universe, so it would seem slightly less weird than Supergirl.

Edited April 27 by Spacescifi

[TheSaint]

15 hours ago, tater said:

I suggest the essay by Larry Niven: Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

It's on his website to read if you dig around. https://www.larryniven.net/

This short story alone is why I hate four-color comics. Except for The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. And sometimes Sandman.

[darthgently]

9 hours ago, TheSaint said:

This short story alone is why I hate four-color comics. Except for The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. And sometimes Sandman.

You might check out God's Dog .  I think you may like it

godsdog.com

Edited April 28 by darthgently

[Terwin]

On 4/27/2024 at 8:53 AM, Spacescifi said:

I know the color of a fireball hints at how much energy at times is being emitted.

The color indicates the temperature of the heated material not the total amount of energy.  A huge starship would not be a higher color temperature than a smaller capsule unless it was also compressing the air more rapidly.  The amount of heating each atom of air receives from compression heating is limited by how compressed the air gets and how quickly it can radiate that heat away.

If you can determine how hot the plasma is, you can just get the color by checking the black-body radiation for that color.

"An approximate rule-of-thumb used by heat shield designers for estimating peak shock layer temperature is to assume the air temperature in Kelvin to be equal to the entry speed in meters per second. For example, a spacecraft entering the atmosphere at 7.8 km/s would experience a peak shock layer temperature of 7800 K."

A cool-white would be above 6500k, so to get a cool-white plasma would likely require a speed of > 6.5km/s  or ~ mach 19.  a light blue looks closer to 10,000k so ~ 10km/s or ~ mach 29

> mach 20 sounds very bad for anything near-by, so I would not expect superman to use this sort of velocity near anything delicate(like cities)

 

[kerbiloid]

Superman is the best friend of the glaziers.

Edited April 29 by kerbiloid

[Spacescifi]

7 hours ago, Terwin said:

The color indicates the temperature of the heated material not the total amount of energy.  A huge starship would not be a higher color temperature than a smaller capsule unless it was also compressing the air more rapidly.  The amount of heating each atom of air receives from compression heating is limited by how compressed the air gets and how quickly it can radiate that heat away.

If you can determine how hot the plasma is, you can just get the color by checking the black-body radiation for that color.

"An approximate rule-of-thumb used by heat shield designers for estimating peak shock layer temperature is to assume the air temperature in Kelvin to be equal to the entry speed in meters per second. For example, a spacecraft entering the atmosphere at 7.8 km/s would experience a peak shock layer temperature of 7800 K."

A cool-white would be above 6500k, so to get a cool-white plasma would likely require a speed of > 6.5km/s  or ~ mach 19.  a light blue looks closer to 10,000k so ~ 10km/s or ~ mach 29

> mach 20 sounds very bad for anything near-by, so I would not expect superman to use this sort of velocity near anything delicate(like cities)

 

 

Thanks! So if anything, this would be something a desperate Supergirl from the comics would do... likely near the ocean, since even she knows better than to wreck cities while flying despite her tendency to push her powers to the max more than her cousin. That... and he kept an eye on her when she was just starting out specifically to keep her out of trouble.