What is the explanation of the apparent staining inside this airliner window [photo]?
I believe the stain is caused by air going through the hole relatively fast due to compression of the cabin. Assuming the window is 40x40 cm large, and there is 10 cm between the panels, the volume of air in it is 16.000.000 mm3. About 30% of this air comes out due to the lower pressure at altitude, that is 4.800.000 mm3. Assuming it takes 600 seconds (10 min) to pressurize the space again, the flow will be 800 mm3/s. Assuming the hole has a diameter of 2 mm, it has an area of 3.14 mm2. The average flow velocity is then 254 mm/s. It looks like the spot is only 20 mm away from the hole, so it would take a dirt particle less than 0,1 second to get to the spot from the hole. I think that is not much time to deflect, hence the concentration in the middle.