On opening, a bottle of bubbly releases a carbon dioxide plume that travels faster than the speed of sound.

The ‘pop’ of a champagne cork unleashes a supersonic jet of freezing gas.

As the pressurized carbon dioxide in the neck of the bottle is released, the gas cools and condenses, forming a cloudy jet. To investigate this phenomenon in detail, Gérard Liger-Belair at the University of Reims Champagne–Ardenne in France and his colleagues used a camera that records 12,000 frames per second to film corks bursting from the necks of champagne bottles.

The footage revealed that characteristic shock waves called Mach disks form in the CO 2 jet — indicating that the gas is travelling faster than the speed of sound. Mach disks are also seen in the exhaust trails of fighter jets.