High-altitude nuclear explosion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

High-altitude nuclear explosions are the result of nuclear weapons testing.

Several such tests were performed at high altitudes by the United States and
the Soviet Union between 1958 and 1962.

Contents
 1EMP generation
 2Drawbacks
 3Differences from atmospheric tests
 4Soviet high-altitude tests
 5List of high-altitude nuclear explosions
 6See also
 7References
 8External links

EMP generation
The strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that results has several components. In the
first few tens of nanoseconds, about a tenth of a percent of the
weapon yield appears as powerful gamma rayswith energies of one to three mega-
electron volts (MeV, a unit of energy). The gamma rays penetrate the atmosphere
and collide with air molecules, depositing their energy to produce huge quantities
of positive ions and recoil electrons (also known as Compton electrons). The
impacts create MeV-energy Compton electrons that then accelerate and spiral along
the Earth's magnetic field lines. The resulting transient electric fields and currents
that arise generate electromagnetic emissions in the radio frequency range of 15 to
250 megahertz (MHz, or fifteen million to 250 million cycles per second). This
high-altitude EMP occurs between 30 and 50 kilometers (18 and 31 miles) above
the Earth's surface. The potential as an anti-satellite weapon became apparent in
August 1958 during Hardtack Teak. The EMP observed at the Apia Observatory
at Samoa was four times more powerful than any created by solar storms, while in
July 1962 the Starfish Prime test damaged electronics in Honolulu and New
Zealand (approximately 1,300 kilometers away), fused 300 street lights
on Oahu (Hawaii), set off about 100 burglar alarms, and caused the failure of
a microwave repeating station on Kauai, which cut off the sturdy telephone system
from the other Hawaiian islands. The radius for an effective satellite kill for the
various prompt radiations produced by such a nuclear weapon in space was
determined to be roughly 80 km. Further testing to this end was carried out, and
embodied in a Department of Defense program, Program 437.
The mechanism for a 400 km (high-altitude burst EMP: gamma rays hit the atmosphere between 20–40 km
altitude, ejecting electrons which are then deflected sideways by the Earth's magnetic field.

Drawbacks
There are problems with nuclear weapons carried over to testing and deployment
scenarios, however. Because of the very large radius associated with nuclear
events, it was nearly impossible to prevent indiscriminate damage to other
satellites, including one's own satellites. Starfish Prime produced an artificial
radiation belt in space that soon destroyed three satellites (Ariel, TRAAC,
and Transit 4B all failed after traversing the radiation belt, while Cosmos V, Injun
Iand Telstar 1 suffered minor degradation, due to some radiation damage to solar
cells, etc.). The radiation dose rate was at least 60 rads/day at four months
after Starfish for a well-shielded satellite or manned capsule in a polar circular
earth orbit, which caused NASA concern with regard to its manned space
exploration programs.

Differences from atmospheric tests

In general, nuclear effects in space (or very high altitudes) have a qualitatively
different display. While an atmospheric nuclear explosion has a
characteristic mushroom-shaped cloud, high-altitude and space explosions tend to
manifest a spherical 'cloud,' reminiscent of other space-based explosions until
distorted by Earth's magnetic field, and the charged particles resulting from the
blast can cross hemispheres to create an auroral display which has led documentary
maker Peter Kuran to characterize these detonations as 'the rainbow bombs'. The
visual effects of a high-altitude or space-based explosion may last longer than
atmospheric tests, sometimes in excess of 30 minutes. Heat from the Bluegill Triple
Prime shot, at an altitude of 50 kilometers (31 mi), was felt by personnel on the
ground at Johnston Atoll, and this test caused retina burns to two personnel
at ground zero who were not wearing their safety goggles.

Soviet high-altitude tests

The Soviets detonated four high-altitude tests in 1961 and three in 1962. During
the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, both the US and the USSR detonated
several high-altitude nuclear explosions as a form of saber-rattling.

The worst effects of a Soviet high-altitude test occurred on 22 October 1962, in

the Soviet Project K nuclear tests (ABM System A proof tests) when a 300 kt
missile-warhead detonated near Dzhezkazgan at 290-km altitude. The EMP fused
570 km of overhead telephone line with a measured current of 2,500 A, started a
fire that burned down the Karaganda power plant, and shut down 1,000-km of
shallow-buried power cables between Aqmola and Almaty.

The Partial Test Ban Treaty was passed the following year, ending atmospheric and
exoatmospheric nuclear tests. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 banned the
stationing and use of nuclear weapons in space. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-
Ban Treaty of 1996 prohibits all kinds of nuclear explosions; whether over- or
underground, underwater or in the atmosphere.

List of high-altitude nuclear explosions

The debris fireball and aurora created by the Starfish Primetest, as seen from a KC-135 aircraft at 3 minutes.

The Starfish Prime flash as seen through heavy cloud cover from Honolulu, 1,300 km away.

USA – Hardtack I – Johnston Atoll, Pacific Ocean

 Yucca 28 April 1958, 1.7 kt, 26.2 km

 Teak, 1 August 1958, 3.8 Mt, 76.8 km
 Orange, 12 August 1958, 3.8 Mt, 43 km

USA – Argus – South Atlantic Ocean

 Argus I, 27 August 1958, 1.7 kt, 200 km

 Argus II, 30 August 1958, 1.7 kt, 240 km
 Argus III, 6 September 1958, 1.7 kt, 540 km (The highest known man made
nuclear explosion)

USSR – 1961 tests – Kapustin Yar

 Test #88, 6 September 1961, 10.5 kt, 22.7 km

  Test #115, 6 October 1961, 40 kt, 41.3 km
 Test #127, 27 October 1961, 1.2 kt, 150 km
 Test #128, 27 October 1961, 1.2. kt, 300 km

USA – Dominic I – (Operation Fishbowl) – Johnston Atoll, Pacific Ocean

 Bluegill, 3 June 1962, failed

 Bluegill Prime, 25 July 1962, failed
 Bluegill Double Prime, 15 October 1962, failed
 Bluegill Triple Prime, 26 October 1962, 410 kt, 50 km
 Starfish, 20 June 1962, failed
 Starfish Prime, 9 July 1962, 1.4 Mt, 400 km (The largest man made nuclear
explosion in outer space)
 Checkmate, 20 October 1962, 7 kt, 147 km
 Kingfish, 1 November 1962, 410 kt, 97 km

USSR – Soviet Project K nuclear tests – Kapustin Yar

 Test #184, 22 October 1962, 300 kt, 290 km

 Test #187, 28 October 1962, 300 kt, 150 km
 Test #195, 1 November 1962, 300 kt, 59 km

See also
 Operation Argus
 Operation Fishbowl
 Outer Space Treaty
 Partial Test Ban Treaty
 Project Highwater
 Soviet Project K nuclear tests
 The Yekaterinburg Fireball is suspected by some[1] of being a high altitude
nuclear explosion

References
1. https://assopyrophor.org/2015/08/16/the-flash-light-in-siberia-nov-14-2014-a-nuclear-
test-in-space-le-flash-en-siberie-du-14112014-un-test-nucleaire-dans-lespace/

External links
 "High-altitude nuclear explosions"
 Peter Kuran's Nukes in Space: The Rainbow Bombs – documentary film from
1999
 United States high-altitude test experiences – A Review Emphasizing the
Impact on the Environment
  Measured EMP waveform data and actual effects from high-altitude nuclear
weapons tests by America and Russia
 American and British official analyses of photography from high-altitude
nuclear explosions

US Government Films:

 Operation Argus
 Operation Dominic
 Starfish Prime
 Operation Fishbowl
 Operation Dominic – Christmas Island
 Operation Dominic – Johnston Island
 High-Altitude Effects – Phenomenology
 High-Altitude Effects – Systems Interference

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altitude_nuclear_explosion&oldid=782540963"
Soviet Project K nuclear tests
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

K project

Information

Country Soviet Union

Test site Karagandy, Kazakhstan

Period 1961-1962

Number of tests 5
 Test type dry surface, space rocket (> 80 km)

Max. yield 300 kilotonnes of TNT(1,300 TJ)

Test series chronology

The Soviet Union's K project nuclear test series[1] was a group of 5 nuclear
tests conducted in 1961-1962. These tests followed the 1961 Soviet nuclear
tests series and preceded the 1962 Soviet nuclear tests series.

The K project nuclear testing series were all high altitude tests fired by missiles
from the Kapustin Yar launch site in Russia across central Kazakhstan toward the
Sary Shagan test range (see map below).

Two of the tests were 1.2 kiloton warheads tested in 1961. The remaining three
tests were of 300 kiloton warheads in 1962.

Electromagnetic pulse
The worst effects of a Soviet high altitude test were from the electromagnetic
pulse of the nuclear test on 22 October 1962 (during the Cuban missile crisis). In
that Operation K high altitude test, a 300 kiloton missile-warhead detonated west
of Jezkazgan (also called Dzhezkazgan or Zhezqazghan) at an altitude of 290 km
(180 mi).

The Soviet scientists instrumented a 570-kilometer (350 mi) section of telephone

line in the area that they expected to be affected by the nuclear detonation in order
to measure the electromagnetic pulse effects.[2] The electromagnetic pulse (EMP)
fused all of the 570-kilometer monitored overhead telephone line with measured
currents of 1500 to 3400 amperes during the 22 October 1962 test.[3] The monitored
telephone line was divided into sub-lines of 40 to 80 kilometres (25 to 50 mi) in
length, separated by repeaters. Each sub-line was protected by fuses and by gas-
filled overvoltage protectors. The EMP from the 22 October (K-3) nuclear test
caused all of the fuses to blow and all of the overvoltage protectors to fire in all of
the sub-lines of the 570 km (350 mi) telephone line.[2] The EMP from the same test
caused the destruction of the Karagandapower plant, and shut down 1,000 km
(620 mi) of shallow-buried power cables between Astana (then called Aqmola)
and Almaty.[3]

The Partial Test Ban Treaty was passed the following year, ending atmospheric and
exoatmospheric nuclear tests.
This map of Kazakhstan shows the missile flight path (in blue) for the K Project warhead-carrying
missiles.[4] The nuclear missiles were launched from the Kapustin Yar site east of Volgograd (formerly
Stalingrad) in the upper left part of the map. The red burst in the flight path west of Zhezqazghan is the
detonation location of the K-3 nuclear test (Test 184). The detonation locations for the other tests have not been
publicized, but from the published detonation altitudes and basic physics, it is known that the other K Project
nuclear detonation locations were along the designated flight path between the K-3 detonation site and
Saryshagan (at the eastern end of the designated flight path). The instrumented telephone line damaged in the K-
3 test went from Zhezqazghan through Qaraghandy (Karaganda), northward to Aqmola (now called Astana, the
capital of Kazakhstan) and ended at an unknown location just north of Aqmola. [2]

Aftereffects
Although the weapons used in the K Project were much smaller (up to 300
kilotons) than the United States Starfish Prime test of 1962, the damage caused by
the resulting EMP was much greater because the K Project tests were done over a
large populated land mass, and at a location where the Earth's magnetic field was
greater. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the level of this damage was
communicated informally to scientists in the United States.[3]

After the 1991 Soviet Union collapse, there was a period of a few years of
cooperation between United States and Russian scientists on the high-altitude
nuclear EMP phenomenon. In addition, funding was secured to enable Russian
scientists to formally report on some of the Soviet EMP results in international
scientific journals.[5] As a result, formal scientific documentation of some of the
EMP damage in Kazakhstan exists[2][6] but is still sparse in the open scientific
literature.

The 1998 IEEE article,[2] however, does contain a number of details about the
measurements of EMP effects on the instrumented 570 km (350 mi) telephone line,
including details about the fuses that were used and also about the gas-filled
overvoltage protectors that were used on that communications line. According to
that paper, the gas-filled overvoltage protectors fired as a result of the voltages
induced by the fast E1 component of the EMP, and the fuses were blown as the
result of the slow E3 component of the EMP, which caused geomagnetically
induced currents in all of the sub-lines.

The Aqmola (Astana) to Almaty buried power cable was also shut down by the
slow E3 component of the EMP.[3]

Published reports, including the 1998 IEEE article,[2] have stated that there were
significant problems with ceramic insulators on overhead electrical power lines
during the tests of the K Project. In 2010, a technical report written for a United
States government laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, stated, "Power line
insulators were damaged, resulting in a short circuit on the line and some lines
detaching from the poles and falling to the ground."[7]

Soviet Union's K project series tests and detonations

Eleva Delive
Date Local
Na tion+ ry, [note Devi Yiel Fallo Refer
time time Location [note 5]
Notes
me [n 3]
heigh ce[note d[note ut[note ences
ote 1]
(UT) zone[n Purpo 7] 8] 9]
ote 2][8]
t [note 4] se [note 6]

First
Soviet
space
test.
Unkno
wn
where
Launch
K2
from
detonat
Kapustin
ed
Yar,
except
Astrakhan:
space it was
1 48.56956° N/A
rocket along a
127 ALM N + 180
27 (> 80 line
K2 T 45.90346°E, kilom 1.2 [1][9][10][1
Octobe km), 1][12][13] from
(Joe (6 hrs elv: 0 + 0 m etres kt
r 1961 weapo K3
109) ) (0 + 0 ft); (110
n explosi
Detonation mi)
effect on to a
over
point
Karagandy,
high
Kazakhstan
above
46.408°N
Sary
72.237°E
Shagan
, the
missile
target
point.
Effects
on
System
 A
prototy
pe
ABM.

Unkno
wn
where
K1
detonat
ed
except
it was
along a
line
from
K3
explosi
on to a
Launch point
from high
Kapustin above
Yar, Sary
Astrakhan: Shagan
space
3 48.56956° N/A , the
rocket
128 ALM N + 300 missile
27 (> 80
K1 T 45.90346°E, kilom 1.2 [1][9][10][1 target
Octobe km), 1][12][13]
(Joe (6 hrs elv: 0 + 0 m etres kt point.
r 1961 weapo
105) ) (0 + 0 ft); (190 Effects
n
Detonation mi) on
effect
over System
Karagandy, A
Kazakhstan prototy
46.7°N pe
69.6°E ABM.
The
CIA
says
Joe 105
was on
10/21,
hence
the
number
, but
appare
ntly is
in
error.

184 ALM Launch space Explod

22 N/A
K3 T from rocket 300 [1][11][12][
ed
Octobe + 290 13][14][15]
(Joe (6 hrs Kapustin (> 80 kt short of
r kilom
157) ) Yar, km), target
19620 etres
Astrakhan 4 weapo above
 3:40:4 8.56956°N (180 n Sary
5 45.90346°E, mi) effect Shagan
elv: 0 + 0 m , west
(0 + 0 ft); of
Detonation Dzhezk
over azgan
Karagandy, (or
Kazakhstan Zhezqa
47.76469°N zghan).
63.95136°E EMP
ran to
thousan
ds of
amps,
damage
d at
least
570 km
of
telepho
ne
lines,
1000 k
m of
buried
power
lines,
and
caused
the
destruc
tion of
the
Karaga
nda
power
plant.

Unkno
wn
Launch
where
from
K4
Kapustin
detonat
Yar,
space ed
Astrakhan 4
28 N/A rocket except
8.56956°N
187 Octobe ALM + 150 (> 80 it was
45.90346°E,
K4 r T kilom km), 300 [1][11][12][
along a
elv: 0 + 0 m 13][14][15]
(Joe 19620 (6 hrs etres weapo kt line
(0 + 0 ft);
160) 4:41:2 ) (93 m ns from
Detonation
0 i) develo K3
over
pment explosi
Karagandy,
on to a
Kazakhstan
point
46.72983°N
high
71.56304°E
above
Sary
Shagan
 , the
missile
target
point.

Unkno
wn
where
K5
Launch detonat
from ed
Kapustin except
Yar, it was
Astrakhan 4 dry along a
N/A
1 8.56956°N surfac line
195 ALM + 59
Novem 45.90346°E, e, from
K5 T kilom 300 [1][11][12][
ber elv: 0 + 0 m weapo 13][16] K3
(Joe (6 hrs etres kt
19620 (0 + 0 ft); ns explosi
168) ) (37 m
9:12:?? Detonation develo on to a
i)
over pment point
Karagandy, high
Kazakhstan above
46.3298°N Sary
72.77929°E Shagan
, the
missile
target
point.

1. The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR
and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions –
Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in
parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates
a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in
such a salvo test, which results in "name1 – 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or
aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where
known.
2. To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to
the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is
earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later,
subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. All historical timezone data are derived from
here:
3. Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the
launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations
are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate.
"~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same
area.
4. Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea
level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft,
tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In
some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for
 example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while
"0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.
5. Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge
are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are
underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are
borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally
overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.
6. Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war,
science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
7. Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the
preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of
information is often not officially disclosed.
8. Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is
defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie).
9. Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known.
The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No
entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise
notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the
measured amount of radioactivity released.

References
1. Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000). CMR Nuclear Explosion
Database (Revision 3) (Technical report). SMDC Monitoring Research.
2. Greetsai, Vasily N.; Kozlovsky, A.H.; Kuvshinnikov, V.M.; Loborev, V.M.; Parfenov,
Y.V.; Tarasov, O.A.; Zdoukhov, L.N. (November 1998). "Response of Long Lines to
Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP)". IEEE Transactions on
Electromagnetic Compatibility. 40 (4): 348–354. doi:10.1109/15.736221.
3. Seguine, Howard (17 February 1995). "US-Russian meeting – HEMP effects on
national power grid & telecommunications" (TXT). memorandum for record.
4. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Committee on Environmental
Policy (2000). Environmental Performance Reviews: Kazakhstan. (First
Review.) (PDF). p. 78. ISBN 92-1-116770-1. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
5. Pfeffer, Robert and Shaeffer, D. Lynn. Combating WMD Journal, (2009) Issue 3. pp.
33-38. "A Russian Assessment of Several USSR and US HEMP Tests"
6. Loborev, Vladimir M. "Up to Date State of the NEMP Problems and Topical Research
Directions," Electromagnetic Environments and Consequences: Proceedings of the
EUROEM 94 International Symposium, Bordeaux, France, 30 May – 3 June 1994, pp.
15–21
7. Metatech Corporation (January 2010). The Early-Time (E1) High-Altitude
Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Its Impact on the U.S. Power Grid." Section 3 –
E1 HEMP History (PDF). Report Meta-R-320. Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
8. "Timezone Historical Database". iana.com. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
9. Soviet Atomic Energy Program (PDF) (Technical report). National Intelligence
Estimate 11-2A-62. Central Intelligence Agency. May 16, 1962. Retrieved March
1, 2015.
10. Zaloga, Steven J. (2002). The Kremlin's Nuclear Sword: The Rise and Fall of Russia's
Strategic Nuclear Forces, 1945–2000. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution
Press. ISBN 1-58834-007-4.
 11. Emanuelson, Jerry. "Test 184". Retrieved December 13, 2013.
12. Podvig, Pavel, ed. (2001). Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
13. "USSR Nuclear Tests, Hydronuclear Experiments, Plutonium Inventory". Sarov,
Russia: RFNC-VNIIEF. 1998.
14. Haave, C. R.; Zmuda, A. J.; Shaw, B. W. (1965). "Very low-frequency phase
perturbations and the Soviet high-altitude nuclear bursts of October 22 and 28,
1962". Journal of Geophysical Research. 70: 4191–
4206. Bibcode:1965JGR....70.4191H. doi:10.1029/jz070i017p04191.
15. Cochran, Thomas B.; Arkin, William M.; Norris, Robert S.; Sands, Jeffrey I. Nuclear
Weapons Databook Vol. IV: Soviet Nuclear Weapons. New York, NY: Harper and
Row.
16. Zmuda, A. J.; Haave, C. R.; Shaw, B. W. (1966). "VLF phase perturbations produced
by the Soviet high-altitude nuclear explosion of November 1, 1962". Journal of
Geophysical Research. 71:
899ff. Bibcode:1966JGR....71..899Z. doi:10.1029/jz071i003p00899.

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Starfish Prime
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Starfish Prime

The debris fireball stretching along Earth's magnetic field with

air-glow aurora as seen at 3 minutes from a surveillance aircraft.

Information

Country United States

Test series Operation Fishbowl

 Test site Johnston Island

Date July 9, 1962

Test type Exoatmospheric

Yield 1.4 megatons (6.0 PJ)

The flash created by the explosion as seen through heavy cloud cover from Honolulu 1,445 km away

Starfish Prime was a July 9, 1962 high-altitude nuclear test conducted by

the United States, a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and
the Defense Atomic Support Agency. It was the largest nuclear test conducted
in outer space and one of five conducted by the US in space.

A Thor rocket carrying a W49 thermonuclear warhead (manufactured by Los

Alamos Scientific Laboratory) and a Mk. 2 reentry vehicle was launched
from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,450 kilometres (900 mi) west-
southwest of Hawaii. The explosion took place at an altitude of 250 miles
(400 km), above a point 19 miles (31 km) southwest of Johnston Island. It
produced a yield equivalent to 1.4 megatonnes of TNT. The explosion was about
10° above the horizon as seen from Hawaii, at 11 PM Hawaii time.[1]

Contents
 1Operation Fishbowl
 2Explosion
 3Aftereffects
 4Resulting scientific discoveries
 5See also
 6References
 7External links

Operation Fishbowl
The Starfish test was one of five high-altitude tests grouped together as Operation
Fishbowl within the larger Operation Dominic, a series of tests in 1962 begun in
response to the Soviet announcement on August 30, 1961 that they would end a
three-year moratorium on testing.[2]

In 1958 the United States had completed six high-altitude nuclear tests, but the
high-altitude tests of that year produced many unexpected results and raised many
new questions. According to the U.S. Government Project Officer's Interim Report
on the Starfish Prime project:

"Previous high-altitude nuclear tests: YUCCA, TEAK, and ORANGE, plus the
three ARGUS shots were poorly instrumented and hastily executed. Despite
thorough studies of the meager data, present models of these bursts are sketchy and
tentative. These models are too uncertain to permit extrapolation to other altitudes
and yields with any confidence. Thus there is a strong need, not only for better
instrumentation, but for further tests covering a range of altitudes and yields."[3]

The Starfish test was originally planned as the second in the Fishbowl series, but
the first launch (Bluegill) was lost by the radar tracking equipment and had to be
destroyed in flight.

The initial Starfish launch attempt on June 20 was aborted in flight due to failure of
the Thor launch vehicle. The Thor missile flew a normal trajectory for 59 seconds;
then the rocket engine stopped, and the missile began to break apart. The range
safety officer ordered the destruction of the missile and warhead. The missile was
between 30,000 and 35,000 feet (9.1 and 10.7 km) in altitude when it was
destroyed. Parts of the missile and some radioactive contamination fell
upon Johnston Island and nearby Sand Island and the surrounding ocean.[4]

Explosion
Another view of Starfish Prime through thin cloud, as seen from Honolulu

On July 9, 1962, at 09:00:09 Coordinated Universal Time (July 8, Honolulu time,

at nine seconds after 11 p.m.), the Starfish Prime test was detonated at an altitude
of 400 kilometres (250 mi). The coordinates of the detonation
were 16°28′N 169°38′WCoordinates: 16°28′N 169°38′W.[1] The actual weapon yield came very
close to the design yield, which various sources have set at different values in the
range of 1.4 to 1.45 megatons (6.0 PJ). The nuclear warhead detonated 13 minutes
and 41 seconds after liftoff of the Thor missile from Johnston Island.[5]

Starfish Prime caused an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), which was far larger than
expected, so much larger that it drove much of the instrumentation off scale,
causing great difficulty in getting accurate measurements. The Starfish Prime
electromagnetic pulse also made those effects known to the public by causing
electrical damage in Hawaii, about 1,445 kilometres (898 mi) away from the
detonation point, knocking out about 300 streetlights,[6] setting off numerous burglar
alarms and damaging a telephone company microwave link. The EMP damage to
the microwave link shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian
islands.

A total of 27 small rockets were launched from Johnston Island to obtain

experimental data from the Starfish Prime detonation. In addition, a large number
of rocket-borne instruments were launched from Barking Sands, Kauai in the
Hawaiian Islands.[7]

A large number of United States military ships and aircraft were operating in
support of Starfish Prime in the Johnston Island area and across the nearby North
Pacific region.

A few military ships and aircraft were also positioned in the region of the South
Pacific Ocean near the Samoan Islands. This location was at the southern end of the
magnetic field line of the Earth's magnetic field from the position of the nuclear
detonation, an area known as the "southern conjugate region" for the test. An
uninvited scientific expeditionary ship from the Soviet Union was stationed near
Johnston Island for the test, and another Soviet scientific expeditionary ship was
located in the southern conjugate region near the Samoan Islands.[8]

After the Starfish Prime detonation, bright auroras were observed in the detonation
area as well as in the southern conjugate region on the other side of the equator
from the detonation. According to one of the first technical reports:[7]

"The visible phenomena due to the burst were widespread and quite intense; a very
large area of the Pacific was illuminated by the auroral phenomena, from far south
of the south magnetic conjugate area (Tongatapu) through the burst area to far
north of the north conjugate area (French Frigate Shoals)... At twilight after the
burst, resonant scattering of light from lithium and other debris was observed at
Johnston and French Frigate Shoals for many days confirming the long time
presence of debris in the atmosphere. An interesting side effect was that the Royal
New Zealand Air Force was aided in anti-submarine maneuvers by the light from
the bomb."

In part, these auroral effects were predicted by Nicholas Christofilos, a scientist

who had earlier worked on the Operation Argus high-altitude nuclear shots.

According to U.S. atomic veteran Cecil R. Coale,[9] some hotels in Hawaii offered
"rainbow bomb" parties on their roofs for Starfish Prime, contradicting some
reports that the artificial aurora was unexpected.

Pages 19–21 of "A 'Quick Look' at the Technical Results of Starfish Prime",
August 1962 states:[7]

At Kwajalein, 1,400 [nautical] miles [2,600 km; 1,600 mi] to the west, a dense
overcast extended the length of the eastern horizon to a height of 5 or 8 degrees. At
0900 GMT a brilliant white flash burned through the clouds rapidly changing to an
expanding green ball of irradiance extending into the clear sky above the overcast.
From its surface extruded great white fingers, resembling cirro-stratus clouds,
which rose to 40 degrees above the horizon in sweeping arcs turning downward
toward the poles and disappearing in seconds to be replaced by spectacular
concentric cirrus like rings moving out from the blast at tremendous initial velocity,
finally stopping when the outermost ring was 50 degrees overhead. They did not
disappear but persisted in a state of frozen stillness. All this occurred, I would
judge, within 45 seconds. As the purplish light turned to magenta and began to fade
at the point of burst, a bright red glow began to develop on the horizon at a
direction 50 degrees north of east and simultaneously 50 degrees south of east
expanding inward and upward until the whole eastern sky was a dull burning red
semicircle 100 degrees north to south and halfway to the zenith obliterating some
of the lesser stars. This condition, interspersed with tremendous white rainbows,
persisted no less than ninety minutes.

At zero time at Johnston, a white flash occurred, but as soon as one could remove
his goggles, no intense light was present. A second after shot time a mottled red
disc was observed directly overhead and covered the sky down to about 45 degrees
from the zenith. Generally, the red mottled region was more intense on the eastern
portions. Along the magnetic north-south line through the burst, a white-yellow
streak extended and grew to the north from near zenith. The width of the white
streaked region grew from a few degrees at a few seconds to about 5–10 degrees in
30 seconds. Growth of the auroral region to the north was by addition of new lines
developing from west to east. The white-yellow auroral streamers receded upward
from the horizon to the north and grew to the south and at about 2 minutes the
white-yellow bands were still about 10 degrees wide and extended mainly from
near zenith to the south. By about two minutes, the red disc region had completed
disappearance in the west and was rapidly fading on the eastern portion of the
overhead disc. At 400 seconds essentially all major visible phenomena had
disappeared except for possibly some faint red glow along the north-south line and
on the horizon to the north. No sounds were heard at Johnston Island that could be
definitely attributed to the detonation.

Strong electromagnetic signals were observed from the burst, as were significant
magnetic field disturbances and earth currents.

A 2006 report described the particle and field measurements of the Starfish
diamagnetic cavity and the injected beta flux into the artificial radiation belt. [10] His
measurements describe the explosion from 0.1 milliseconds to 16 minutes after the
detonation.

Aftereffects
While some of the energetic beta particles followed the Earth's magnetic field and
illuminated the sky, other high-energy electrons became trapped and
formed radiation belts around the earth. There was much uncertainty and
debate about the composition, magnitude and potential adverse effects from this
trapped radiation after the detonation. The weaponeers became quite worried when
three satellites in low Earth orbit were disabled. The half-life of the energetic
electrons was only a few days. At the time it was not known that solar and cosmic
particle fluxes varied by a factor 10, and energies could exceed 1 MeV. These man-
made radiation belts eventually crippled a third of all satellites in low Earth orbit.
Seven satellites failed over the months following the test, as
radiation damaged their solar arrays or electronics, including the first commercial
relay communication satellite, Telstar, as well as the United Kingdom's first
satellite, Ariel 1.[11][12][13][14]Detectors on Telstar, TRAAC, Injun, and Ariel 1 were used
to measure distribution of the radiation produced by the tests.[15]

In 1963, it was reported that Starfish Prime had created a belt of MeV
electrons.[16] In 1968, it was reported that some Starfish electrons had remained for
five years.[17]

Resulting scientific discoveries

 The Starfish bomb contained Cd-109 tracer, which helped work out the
seasonal mixing rate of polar and tropical air masses.[18]
 The Starfish EMP waveform measured by Richard L. Wakefield of Los
Alamos led to a revolution in understanding this nuclear effect.[19]

See also
 Operation Fishbowl
 List of artificial radiation belts
 High-altitude nuclear explosion
  List of nuclear weapons tests

References
1. Vittitoe, Charles N., "Did High-Altitude EMP Cause the Hawaiian Streetlight
Incident?" Sandia National Laboratories. June 1989.
2. "Operation Dominic". Nuclear Weapon Archive. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
3. Defense Atomic Support Agency. Project Officer's Interim Report: STARFISH Prime.
Report ADA955694. August 1962
4. Defense Nuclear Agency. Operation Dominic I. 1962. Report DNA 6040F. (First
published as an unclassified document on February 1, 1983.) Page 228–229
5. Dyal, P., Air Force Weapons Laboratory. Report ADA995428. "Operation Dominic.
Fish Bowl Series. Debris Expansion Experiment". December 10, 1965. Page 15.
Retrieved 2010-07-17
6. Vittitoe, Charles N., "Did High-Altitude EMP Cause the Hawaiian Streetlight
Incident?" Sandia National Laboratories, June 1989, p. 5.
7. United States Department of Defense. Report ADA955411. "A Quick Look at the
Technical Results of Starfish Prime". August 1962.
8. United States Central Intelligence Agency. National Intelligence Estimate. Number
11-2A-63. "The Soviet Atomic Energy Program". page 44.
9. Schwoch, James. Global TV: New Media and the Cold War, 1946-69 (Illinois, 2009).
Web. Accessed 19 March 2012.
10. Dyal, Palmer (2006). "Particle and field measurements of the Starfish diamagnetic
cavity". Journal of Geophysical Research. 111 (A12211):
A12211. Bibcode:2006JGRA..11112211D. doi:10.1029/2006JA011827.
11. Early, James M. "Telstar I - Dawn of a New Age". Southwest Museum of Engineering,
Communications and Computation. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
12. "50 Years Ago, Communications Became Global - interview with Walter Brown of
Bell Labs". NPR. 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
13. Ralph D. Lorenz, David Michael Harland (2005). Space Systems Failures: Disasters
and Rescues of Satellites, Rocket and Space Probes. Springer. ISBN 0-387-21519-0.
14. Smallwood, Karl. "That Time the US Accidentally Nuked Britain's First
Satellite". Today I Found Out. Gizmodo. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
15. Hess, Wilmot N. (September 1964). "The Effects of High Altitude
Explosions" (PDF). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA TN D-
2402. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
16. Brown, W.L.; J.D. Gabbe (March 1963). "The Electron Distribution in the Earth's
Radiation Belts during July 1962 As Measured by Telstar". Journal of Geophysical
Research. 68 (3): 607–
618. Bibcode:1963JGR....68..607B. doi:10.1029/JZ068i003p00607. Retrieved 2010-
06-17.
17. in The Radiation Belt and Magnetosphere
18. Review of early data on mixing rate of polar and tropical air masses
19. Wakefield's 1962 report is Measurement of time interval from electromagnetic signal
received in C-130 aircraft, 753 nautical miles (1,395 km) from burst, at 11 degrees 16
minutes North, 115 degrees 7 minutes West, 24,750 feet. Available here

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or

documents of the United States Government.
External links
 Starfish Prime video
 Krulwich, Robert (July 1, 2010). "A Very Scary Light Show: Exploding H-
Bombs In Space". National Public Radio. Retrieved 5 July 2010. - includes
video of the explosion and audio of witness accounts.

This is a public mirror site of Wikipedia. It is not

affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Please go
to wikipedia.org for the official Wikipedia landing page...

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Starfish_Prime&oldid=800684993"

When it comes to nations with a long and rich history of space travel and exploration,
Britain isn’t normally a country that comes to most people’s minds. However, they
were the third country in the world to operate a satellite in orbit. It’s just a shame
America ended up accidentally killing it just a few months later…

The satellite in question was the Ariel-1, which was developed as a joint-venture
between the United States and Britain, with Britain designing and building the core
systems of the satellite and NASA launching it into orbit via a Thor-Delta rocket.

The UK scientists first proposed the idea for Ariel-1 to NASA in 1959 after NASA
made an offer to help fly the scientific equipment of other nations into space. Due to
the close relationship between the two countries, details were easily and quickly
worked out and by the following year, scientists in the UK were given the go ahead to
start creating the instrumentation needed, while engineers in the US began work on
the satellite that would house the equipment. On the 26th of April, 1962, the first
international space effort ever was launched into space and Britain was operating its
first satellite.
According to NASA, the instruments aboard Ariel-1 were intended to help “contribute
to the current knowledge of the ionosphere” and its relationship with the Sun. More
specifically, scientists were curious about how the ionosphere, a part of the Earth’s
atmosphere made of particles charged by radiation from the Sun, worked. (For more
on the ionosphere, see: Why Do Radio Signals Travel Farther at Night than in the
Day?)

To accomplish its mission, Ariel-1 was loaded with a tape recorder for storing
collected data, a device designed to measure solar radiation, and several instruments
used to measure how the various particles in the ionosphere reacted and changed in
response to external stimuli from the cosmos, most notably the Sun.

On July 9, 1962, mere weeks after Ariel-1 was put into orbit and had successfully
begun transmitting data about the ionosphere back to Earth, British scientists were
shocked when the sensors aboard Ariel-1 designed to measure radiation levels
suddenly began to give wildly high readings. Initially, they assumed that the satellite’s
instruments had failed or were otherwise just malfunctioning.

As it turned out, as Ariel-1 was happily free-falling around the Earth, the US military
had decided to detonate an experimental 1.4 megaton nuclear weapon named
Starfish-Prime in the upper atmosphere as part of Project Fish Bowl. The explosion,
which happened on the other side of the planet to Ariel-1, sent a wave of additional
radiation around the Earth that ultimately damaged some of the systems on Ariel-1,
particularly its solar panels, ultimately killing it and about 1/3 of the rest of the
satellites in low-Earth orbit at the time. This famously included the Telstar satellite,
which was the first commercial communication relay satellite designed to transmit
signals across the Atlantic.

The Telstar actually wasn’t in orbit at the time of the explosion, being put there the
day after the Starfish-Prime detonation. However, the additional radiation created by
the explosion took years to dissipate and was not anticipated by the designers of this
particular satellite. The immediate result being the degradation of Telstar’s systems,
particularly the failure of several transistors in the command system, causing it to
stop working just a few months after being placed in orbit.

As to the purpose of the Starfish-Prime explosion, according to James Fleming, a

history professor who combed through previously top-secret files and recordings
concerning the blast, the U.S. military were working with scientist James Van Allen to
see if nuclear explosions could influence the existing belts of radiation around the
Earth. Van Allen apparently started working with the military to launch nukes into
these belts the very same day he announced to the world that he’d discovered the
belts, now known as the Van Allen radiation belts. Flemming noted of this,

“This is the first occasion I’ve ever discovered where someone discovered something and
immediately decided to blow it up.”

He forgot to mention the obligatory, FOR SCIENCE!!!

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

 That Time the U.S. Decided to Nuke the Moon

 For Nearly Two Decades the Nuclear Launch Code at all Minuteman Silos in
the United States Was 00000000

 Vasili Arkhipov: The Man Who Saved the World

 Why Nuclear Bombs Create Mushroom Clouds

 Voyager’s Fascinating Golden Record

Bonus Facts:

 At around the same time the US was planning to send actual nuclear bombs
into orbit, British scientists were similarly experimenting with explosives by
attaching grenades to suborbital rockets to run atmospheric pressure tests;
once again demonstrating that no matter where they’re from or what tools are
available, scientists just really like to blow things up.
  The Starfish explosion was actually supposed to have happened on June 20th,
but the rocket carrying it failed at about 30,000 feet. Once this happened, the
self-destruct on the nuclear warhead was initiated and it broke apart, raining
its radioactive innards down on Johnston and Sand Islands, as well as in the
ocean around them.

 Britain’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman, was sent into space in 1991. All in
all, 21 other nations beat Britain to the punch in terms of sending a
representative of their country into space, including Afghanistan (Abdul Ahad
Mohmand), Mongolia (Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa) and Vietnam (Phạm
Tuân).

 The effects of Starfish-Prime weren’t just limited to low orbit. The

electromagnetic pulse created by the blast ended up being much larger than
expected and, in Hawaii some 900 or so miles away from the blast, the pulse
ended up knocking out a few hundred street lights and damaged the telephone
system. Needless to say, a similar blast in today’s digital society would have
caused drastically more damage.

Karl Smallwood writes for the wildly popular interesting fact

website TodayIFoundOut.com. To subscribe to Today I Found Out’s “Daily
Knowledge” newsletter, click here or like them on Facebook here.

This post has been republished with permission from TodayIFoundOut.com. Image
by Cliff unde

Bad Astronomy
« Innsbruck by night time lapseNew research points toward "no" on arsenic life »
The 50th anniversary of Starfish Prime:
the nuke that shook the world
By Phil Plait | July 9, 2012 6:05 am

1.7K

On July 9, 1962 — 50 years ago today —

the United States detonated a nuclear weapon high above the Pacific Ocean.
Designated Starfish Prime, it was part of a dangerous series of high-altitude nuclear
bomb tests at the height of the Cold War. Its immediate effects were felt for
thousands of kilometers, but it would also have a far-reaching aftermath that still
touches us today.

In 1958, the Soviet Union called for a ban on atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons,
and went so far as to unilaterally stop such testing. Under external political pressure,
the US acquiesced. However, in late 1961 political pressures internal to the USSR
forced Khrushchev to break the moratorium, and the Soviets began testing once
again. So, again under pressure, the US responded with tests of their own.

It was a scary time to live in.

The US, worried that a Soviet nuclear bomb detonated in space could damage or
destroy US intercontinental missiles, set up a series of high-altitude weapons tests
called Project Fishbowl (itself part of the larger Operation Dominic) to find out for
themselves what happens when nuclear weapons are detonated in space. High-
altitude tests had been done before, but they were hastily set up and the results
inconclusive. Fishbowl was created to take a more rigorous scientific approach.

Boom! Goes the dynamite

 On July 9, 1962, the US launched a Thor
missile from Johnston island, an atoll about 1500 kilometers (900 miles) southwest
of Hawaii. The missile arced up to a height of over 1100 km (660 miles), then came
back down. At the preprogrammed height of 400 km (240 miles), just seconds after
09:00 UTC, the 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead detonated.

And all hell broke loose.

1.4 megatons is the equivalent of 1.4 million tons of TNT exploding. However, nuclear
weapons are fundamentally different from simple chemical explosives. TNT releases
its energy in the form of heat and light. Nukes also generate heat and light,
plus vast amounts of X-rays and gamma rays – high-energy forms of light – as well as
subatomic particles like electrons and heavy ions.

When Starfish prime exploded, the effects were devastating. Here’s a video showing
actual footage from the test, 50 years ago today:

As you can see, the explosion was roughly spherical; the shock wave expanding in all
directions roughly equally since there is essentially no atmosphere at that
height. Another video has many more views of the test; I’ve linked it directly to those
sequences, but if you start at the beginning it’s actually an hour-long documentary on
the test.

Nuke ’em ’til they glow

 One immediate effect of the blast was a
huge aurora seen for thousands of kilometers around. Electrons are lightweight and
travel rapidly away from the explosion. A moving electron is affected by a magnetic
field, so these electrons actually flowed quickly along the Earth’s magnetic field lines
and were dropped into the upper atmosphere. At a height of roughly 50 – 100
kilometers they were stopped by the atoms and molecules of Earth’s atmosphere.
Those atoms and molecules absorbed the energy of the electrons and responded by
glowing, creating an artificial aurora.

Heavy ions (atoms stripped of electrons) are also created in the blast, and get
absorbed somewhat higher up in the atmosphere. The image here shows this glow as
seen by an airplane moments after the nuclear explosion. The feathery filament is
from the bomb debris, while the red glow may be due to glowing oxygen atoms; this
tends to be from atoms higher than 100 km, so the glow is probably due to the heavy
ions impacting our air.

Taking the pulse of a nuclear weapon

But the effects were far more than a simple light show. When the bomb detonated,
those electrons underwent incredible acceleration. When that happens they create a
brief but extremely powerful magnetic field. This is called an electromagnetic pulse,
or EMP. The strength of the pulse was so huge that it affected the flow of electricity
on the Earth hundreds of kilometers away! In Hawaii it blew out hundreds of
streetlights, and caused widespread telephone outages. Other effects included
electrical surges on airplanes and radio blackouts.

The EMP had been predicted by scientists, but the Starfish Prime pulse was far larger
than expected. And there was another effect that hadn’t been predicted accurately.
Many of the electrons from the blast didn’t fall down into the Earth’s atmosphere, but
instead lingered in space for months, trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, creating an
artificial radiation belt high above our planet’s surface.
When a high-speed electron hits a satellite, it can generate a sort-of miniature EMP.
The details are complex, but the net effect is that these electrons can zap satellites
and damage their electronics. The pulse of electrons from the Starfish Prime
detonation damaged at least six satellites (including one Soviet bird), all of which
eventually failed due to the blast. Other satellite failures at the time may be linked to
the explosion as well.

The overall effect shocked scientists and engineers. They had expected something
much smaller, not nearly the level that actually occurred. Because of this, later high-
altitude nuclear tests made by the US as part of Operation Fishbowl were designed to
have a much lower yield. Although the explosion energies are still classified, it’s
estimated they ranged from a few dozen to a few hundred kilotons, a fraction of the
1.4 megaton Starfish Prime explosion.

Ripples downstream

The long-term physical effects from the explosion died down after a few months, but
the ramifications live on today. In 2010, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency issued
a report called "Collateral Damage to Satellites from an EMP Attack", and I highly
recommend reading it if you’ve gotten too much sleep lately. It details the effects of a
high-altitude nuclear blast, and how one could be used to disable an entire country in
one blow.

I am of the opinion that knowing is better than not knowing, even when the
knowledge is terrifying. In this case, forewarned is forearmed. This EMP knowledge
has been out there for decades, so the more we understand it, the better we may be
able to use it to prevent damage from the bad guys from trying something like this.

And if I may distance myself from the horrifying political and dark human aspects of
all this, there was much science learned. EMPs are fascinating, and don’t need nukes
to occur. The Sun blasts out high energy particles and light during solar storms. In
much the same way, these can damage our satellites and harm our astronauts in
space.

Learning about them from Starfish Prime increased our understanding of the physics
of EMPs, and also gave us insight into mitigating the effects. Interestingly, a nearby
supernova or gamma-ray burst (a kind of super-supernova) would also have very
similar effects, and could even directly affect our atmosphere. The good news is there
are no potential supernovae or GRB progenitors close enough to hurt us. However, as
our Sun orbits the galaxy, there may have been a time when one did go off nearby,
millions or billions of years ago. There’s some thinking that the Ordovician extinction
440 million years ago – when the trilobites died out – may have been due to a nearby
GRB. The evidence is sketchy for sure, but intriguing.

Lesson on the half-century anniversary

So what do we make of all this? What conclusions may be drawn?

 The scientific conclusions are rather
straight-forward — the existence of EMPs, the damage to satellites, the artificial
aurorae and radiation belts — and have added to our knowledge.

But at what cost? I was alive and entering young adulthood at the end of the Cold
War. I wasn’t born when Starfish Prime went off, but I do remember other tests, and I
remember some of the nightmares I had as a kid about nuclear war. This wasn’t
ancient history; it was just a few years ago. The concern over nuclear weapons is still
real, as well it should be, even if the situation has evolved somewhat since then.

It may seem like madness now that there were two such huge powers (not including
China, which was also a credible nuclear threat at the time) testing nuclear weapons
on our own planet. Perhaps it was madness. Still, the idea of two enemies with such
overwhelming capability to destroy each other and themselves is behind the premise
of Mutually Assured Destruction — making it insane to attack, since it guarantees
your own destruction.

That assumes one of the groups in questions doesn’t want to die. With some religious
fanatics, that deterrent not only goes away, but actually becomes an instigation.
That’s one reason I support reasoned, well-investigated intelligence efforts by
governments. These efforts can be abused, of course, so we must be vigilant in
watching the watchers. But there’s little doubt they’re needed. Bad guys are out there.

So I urge you, on this unhappy anniversary, to read more about the explosion that
taught us so much about unexpected consequences, and to think about how fragile
our existence can be — and why we must fight so hard for it.

I’ll leave you with one more thing. From an article I wrote in 2010, here is a video by
Isao Hashimoto showing the location and information for every nuclear detonation
on Earth. I titled it "What the hell were we thinking?"

Dmitriy Sudakov
17 Sep 2009 at 06:35

Tsar Bomba's Blast Wave Orbited Earth

Three Times in 1961
History, traditions
 Tsar Bomba's Blast Wave Orbited Earth Three Times in 1961

This day in history.

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September 17, 1954:

A nuclear range ground was created on Russia’s Novaya Zemlya Archipelago. The test of the
legendary RDS-202 bomb, also known as the Tsar Bomba, was tested on the range ground in
October of 1961. It was the most powerful explosive device that has ever been created in the
history of mankind – a 50-megatonn thermonuclear bomb developed under the supervision of
academician I.V. Kurchatov.

The plane, covered with a special protective white coating, piloted by Major A. Durnovtsev, took
off on October 30, 1961, during the work of the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union. The aircraft dropped the bomb within the territory of the range ground at the height
of 4,500 meters. The power of the explosion exceeded the expected capacity and made up 57
megatons of TNT.

The results of the Tsar Bomba explosion impressed the whole world. The nuclear mushroom was
64 kilometers high and 40 kilometers in diameter. The fire ball of the explosion was 4.6 km in
diameter. The blast wave orbited the globe three times. One-third of the range ground melted and
turned into glass surface.

The bomb did not have any significance per se. Its size and weight excluded a successful
delivery in case of a real war. There was only one bomb made specifically for only one test
explosion. The USSR (and then Russia) did not have an intention to put such monstrous bombs
into arsenal. The bomb was exploded to demonstrate the USSR’s possession of extremely
powerful weapons of mass destruction. The USA’s most powerful A-bomb was four times less
powerful than the Tsar Bomba.

September 17, 1953:

The first operation to separate Siamese twins was performed in the world successfully. The
names of the two lucky babies were lost in history along with the stories of their lives after the
separation. The surgery is still considered extremely complicated nowadays. Each of such
operations receives an extensive news coverage all over the world. Modern medicine allows to
perform nearly perfect separation of Siamese twins in case there are anatomical prerequisites for
that. The separated babies can grow and live like all other human beings.

September 17, 1934:

The world’s first-ever gramophone record, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony saw the light. Vinyl
records gained immense popularity all over the world soon afterwards.

September 17, 1976:

NASA unveiled the world’s first-ever shuttle spacecraft – Enterprise. NASA is currently wrapping
up the shuttle program; it will be closed in a couple of years.

September 17, 1991:

Legendary software engineer Linus Torvalds of Finland published the initial code of Linux, the
kernel of a new operating system. Linux has gained immense popularity internationally. It
gradually becomes an available alternative to Microsoft’s Windows.

Yoki.ru

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Trinity (nükleer deneme)

Vikipedi, özgür ansiklopedi

16 Temmuz 1945 yılında New Mexico'daki Socorro'nun 56 km kadar güneydoğusunda şu an üzerinde

komuta merkezi Alamogordo'da bulunan White Sands Missile Range'in bulunduğu yerde yapılmış Trinity
patlamasının, infilak anından 0,016 sn sonra çekilmiş görüntüsüdür. Görüntülenen yarım kürenin en yüksek
noktası yaklaşık 200 metre yüksekliğindedir.

Başlığın diğer anlamları için Trinity sayfasına bakınız.

Trinity, bir nükleer silah için yapılmış ilk nükleer test teknolojisidir. 16 Temmuz 1945 yılında New
Mexico'daki Socorro'nın 56 km kadar güneydoğusunda şu an üzerinde komuta
merkezi Alamogordo'da bulunan White Sands Missile Range'in bulunduğu yerde yapılmıştır.
Trinity bir iç patlamalı plütonyum bombanın testidir. Aynı tipte tasarlanmış olan Fat
Man isimli bomba bu denemeden birkaç hafta sonra Japonya'daki Nagasaki'ye atılmıştır. Trinity
patlamasının gücü 20 kiloton TNT'nin oluşturduğu şiddete eştir ve bu deneme ile Atom Çağı'nın
başladığı kabul edilmektedir.[1]