LISBON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Portugal has carried out its first hypersonic test under real conditions, marking the country's entry into experimental research on extreme high-speed flows, the Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST) of the University of Lisbon said on Thursday.
According to IST, the experiment successfully generated a hypersonic flow at around eight kilometers per second, equivalent to Mach 25. The institute said the speed can be compared to "crossing mainland Portugal from north to south in just over five minutes."
The test produced shock intensities capable of heating the gas flow to temperatures exceeding those on the surface of the Sun, IST said, noting that the light emitted by the shock wave resembles the flash of a shooting star.
The hypersonic flow, defined as traveling at least five times the speed of sound, was generated in demanding physical conditions. The operation of the shock tube, which is remotely controlled for safety reasons, involves the use of hydrogen, oxygen and helium mixtures at very high pressures, the institute said.
The test was conducted on Nov. 19, 2025, by the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion (IPFN), a research unit of IST, using the European Shock Tube for High Enthalpy Research (ESTHER) facility, located on the Tecnico campus in Loures, a municipality north of the capital Lisbon.
IST said the ESTHER facility will help scientists study phenomena that only occur at extreme speeds, including the atmospheric reentry of rockets and spacecraft, as well as the exploration of the atmospheres of planets such as Mars, Venus and Jupiter, and Saturn's moon Titan.
In a statement, the institute said the successful test marks "Portugal's entry into the experimental capability to study hypersonic phenomena," adding that the infrastructure is expected, in the medium term, to support the planning of missions by the European Space Agency (ESA), of which Portugal is a member state. ■