In a supersonic flow the compression of a nonreacting gas can be most simply modelled as an isentropic or Prandtl-Meyer compression, or as a shock wave.
When an object (or disturbance) moves faster than the information about it can be propagated into the surrounding fluid, fluid near the disturbance cannot react or "get out of the way" before the disturbance arrives.
For more information about the topic Shock wave, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
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