When Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket suddenly , researchers analyzed data from special listening stations across the U.S. for signs of infrasound — ultra-low-frequency sound below the range of human hearing — that coincided with the blast. At least 36 stations picked up infrasound signals from the explosion, the farthest of which was located in northeast Texas, about 1,046 miles (1,684 km) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Detecting such distant low-frequency sound waves not only highlights the scale of the blast but also provided researchers with “a very rare opportunity to study [the] large real-world energetic event” in more detail, study first author Elizabeth Silber, a physicist and planetary scientist at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, wrote in a statement.
Based on the frequency and travel distance of the sound waves, the researchers estimated that the explosion had the equivalent power of 0.131 kilotons (144 U.S. tons) of TNT, which is slightly higher than the initial blast that destroyed the nuclear reactor at Chornobyl in 1986, according to a 2009 study.
The team also worked out how much of the rocket’s fuel was consumed in the initial explosion. Although the exact amount of fuel in the booster is unknown, they estimate that between 3% and 6% of the rocket’s cryogenic propellant was used up in the initial blast. This may seem low, especially considering the size of the fireball, but it lies within the expected range, researchers said.
“In a large propellant accident, the fuel and oxidizer do not necessarily mix and react all at once,” Silber said. “Some material can contribute to the initial blast, while other material can burn more gradually in the fireball and the plume.”
The researchers believe that infrasound is an underutilized and potentially valuable tool for tracking spacecraft accidents or other large explosions across the globe.
The same team has also previously used the low-frequency sound waves to track meteors and spacecraft as they enter Earth’s atmosphere, including the return capsule of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in 2023.
