Meteor creates a sonic boom???

This story just came out on CNN.

Meteor

What I want to know is if an object is already going much faster than the speed of sound and comes by your location, does it make a sonic boom. I thought sonic booms only occur as an object is breaking the speed of sound. I doubt the meteor was accelerating. It had to be traveling really fast as it entered the atmosphere and slowing down if anything. Is there a reverse sonic boom? A boom caused by slowing past the sound barrier??? This is a strange story!!

Any object travelling faster than the speed of sound will cause a sonic boom. It doesn't necessarily have to be just about to pass through the barrier. So long as it's travelling at or faster than the speed of sound, an object will create a wake in its direction of travel which acts as a pressure wave, which is essentially what creates the boom.

The faster it travels, the more intense the pressure wave becomes, and the further behind the object the front of the wave is situated. This is because the front of the wave is travelling at the speed of sound, when the object is travelling much faster. It basically forms a cone shaped front of compressed air coming from the the front of the object and projecting behind it. The faster the object moves at, the narrower the front of the cone.

The crack you hear when the object passes your position is due to the rapid change in air pressure across the pressure wave boundary......much like a thunderclap.

I actually have some pictures of Jet Fighters as they break the sound barrier - pretty amazing stuff to see. Is there a way I can upload here?

Source: Encyclopedia.com

SONIC BOOM [sonic boom] shock wave produced by an object moving through the air at supersonic speed, i.e., faster than the speed of sound. Since sound is a mechanical disturbance that propagates through the air, there is a limit to its speed. An object such as an airplane, moving through the air, generates sound. When the speed of the object reaches or exceeds the speed of sound, the object catches up with its own noise; at higher speeds, it forces the sound ahead of itself faster than the noise would ordinarily travel. The piled-up sound takes the form of a violent shock wave called a sonic boom propagating behind the object. Sonic booms occasionally have mechanically destructive effects in addition to their role as noise pollutants.

So I'd say IMO that it's when the object fiorst hits the sound barrier and is traveling faster. I mean if you think about it, if you've ever seen or heard a supersonic jet flying over, it seems like I always hear a sonic boom and i dont think id be lucky enough to be there everytime the jet hit the sound barrier.

Yeah it was likely slowed by the air. Meteors get their speed while flying in space, and when an object enters the atmosphere, it's like when you jump into water - the ambient density is a lot thicker and it slows you down.
Probably not related to UFOs because they don't commonly make such noises.

I've seen some of those photos you refer to. Thanks for the offer to upload them. I didn't realize that a sonic boom is heard as an object passes a particular location relative to the viewer. I thought it only happened at the moment of crossing the threshold.

Originally posted by Jeddyhi
I've seen some of those photos you refer to. Thanks for the offer to upload them. I didn't realize that a sonic boom is heard as an object passes a particular location relative to the viewer. I thought it only happened at the moment of crossing the threshold.

Oh no........the object can be long gone passed where you're at, and you'll hear a boom once the pressure wave passes your location. That's why you always hear rather than see objects travelling faster than the speed of sound.

The pressure wave is still there..... no matter how fast the object is travelling at.