Eli5: How do objects entering the earth atmosphere catch fire? is it from travelling to quick?

Question

Eli5: How do objects entering the earth atmosphere catch fire? is it from travelling to quick?

In: 1

Answer 1

Objects coming in from space aren’t just falling, they’re orbiting the Earth and/or the Sun at a phenomenal speed, tens of thousands of miles an hour.

When you slam into the atmosphere at hypersonic speed the gas molecules in the way can’t just move aside, they’re getting rammed into a compression wave ahead of the object.

When you compress a gas it gets warmer, and when you compress a gas at hypersonic speed it gets *really* warm – hot enough to incinerate small objects.