page_title: Shock diamond
section_title: Alternative sources
hierarchical_section_title: Shock diamond / Alternative sources
caption_attribution_description: English: Masten Space Systems XA0.1E rocket, nicknamed "Xoie" (pronounced Zoey) hovering under rocket thrust at the Mojave Air &amp; Space Port in California. This photo is just before landing on the winning flight of Level 2 of the Lunar Lander Challenge. An X-Prize Foundation logo can be seen on the side of the rocket's pressurant tank, placed there for the competition.
context_page_description: Shock diamonds are a formation of standing wave patterns that appear in the supersonic exhaust plume of an aerospace propulsion system, such as a supersonic jet engine, rocket, ramjet, or scramjet, when it is operated in an atmosphere. The "diamonds" are actually a complex flow field made visible by abrupt changes in local density and pressure as the exhaust passes through a series of standing shock waves and expansion fans. Mach diamonds are named after Ernst Mach, the physicist who first described them.
context_section_description: Shock diamonds are most commonly associated with jet and rocket propulsion, but they can form in other systems.
caption: Shock diamonds beneath Masten Space Systems Xoie rocket during the Lunar Lander Challenge competition-winning landing.
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