  The paper contains a stability analysis of the plane-wave Riemann problem for
the two-dimensional hyperbolic conservation laws for an ideal compressible gas.
It is proved that the contact discontinuity in the plane-wave Riemann problem
is unstable under perturbations. The implications for Godunovs method are
discussed and it is shown that numerical post shock noise can set of a contact
instability. A relation to carbuncle instabilities is established.
