Helicopter Halos
Video of the Week #103, August 1st, 2013: Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com From: The Beautiful Science of Helicopter Halos by Kyle Hill at Overthinking It.
By Bora Zivkovic
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
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Video of the Week #103, August 1st, 2013:Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.comFrom:The Beautiful Science of Helicopter Halos by Kyle Hill at Overthinking It. Source:Fox News. When a helicopter descends into a sandy environment, it creates a brilliant halo that is a stark contrast to the solemnity of battle. But scientifically, what are these miniature galaxies adorning helicopter blades? It's due to something called the the Kopp-Etchells Effect. The downward thrust from the blades kicks up a cloud of sand, and the blades smash into millions of these tiny particles. Every so often, the metal blasted from the blades produces a miniature meteor shower.
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