Mini Tangent Blog: Windsurfing on Neptune

This has little to do with my thesis but after last night I need a pick-me-up. So this blog is about wind on Neptune.

Some planets (like Neptune) have winds that are faster than the speed of sound, cool right? But then,I wondered, what does that sound like? Assuming you were standing in the same spot... somehow...

Oh! you're in a rocket jetting you backward at the speed necessary to get you to orbit the planet every 16 hours (a neptune day).

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Oh oh oh oh! Let's verify my logic ad calculate how fast the rocket ship would have to be going!

Speed of sound on earth at sea level: 767.269mph

of earth: 24,901miCircumference

Time it takes for sound to fly around the widest part of the earth: 1.3 Earth days (about 33 hours).

Wind speed on Neptune: 1367.016622922mph

Time it would take for Neptune's winds to travel around Earth: 24,901mi/1367.01mph = 18.2 hours

Time it would take for Neptune's winds to travel around Neptune:96,685.4mi/1367.01mph= 70.72hours, 3 Earth days,4.4 neptune days (neptune is huge)

How fast neptune rotates on adverage(neptune is an ice giant so different parts rotate at different speeds, so this is an approximation)= circumference of the planet/length of a day in minutes = 96,685/966 = 100.08mpm or SIX THOUSAND AND FIVE MILES PER HOUR, THAT IS FOUR TIMES THE SPEED OF NEPTUNIAN SOUND (which is on average twice the speed of sound on earth)

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So you'd need a rocket capable of going mach 2 ripping against the wind to rotate with the planet.

So what would that sound like? Zooming through the tumultuous atmosphere of one of our solar system's most grizzly planets.

Brace yourselves.

Not a lot. You would hear rumbling, but no cool sonic boom storms. This is becuase you would have to be in a rocketship, and the sounds inside the ship would be supersonic so just like on earth, you'd be isolated from the boom.

If you were flying with the wind, you wouldn't hear much either. In order to get a sonic boom, you need a bunch of pressure waves building up, but the atmosphere is moving mostly in unison so they're essentially escaping your ship as you chase them.