The most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested
What If All Nuclear Bombs Exploded At The Same Time
The True Scale Of Nuclear Explosions
The discovery of nuclear fission undoubtedly ranks among the most transformative moments in human history, akin to the revelation of fire. With conflicts erupting in various regions worldwide, the specter of nuclear annihilation looms ominously closer than ever. Yet, amidst this apprehension, questions arise about the actual potency of these weapons. While some experts contend that nuclear armaments might not wield the catastrophic power commonly portrayed, others warn of their capacity to extinguish all life on Earth. What repercussions would a nuclear conflict inflict upon our planet? Furthermore, ponder the hypothetical scenario of employing nuclear weaponry on extraterrestrial bodies like the moon. Join us as we delve into these inquiries, unveiling the true extent of nuclear might. Additionally, we’ll shed light on a weapon so perilous that its mere existence is cause for dread. Nuclear warheads are the king of all bombs when it comes to weapons of mass destruction. And according to estimates done recently, there’s around 12,500 nuclear warheads that exist globally. Russia’s got around 5,90 0, and the United States possesses around 5,244 nuclear weapons. However, a majority of those nuclear weapons are either in storage or retired. In fact, both the United States and Russia only have about 1,600 active deployed strategic nuclear warheads each. That’s still 3,200 nuclear warheads, quite enough to cause plenty of devastation. Other countries ‘officially’ recognized as having nuclear weapons are China, France, and the United Kingdom, but their numbers are far lower. For instance, China has only about 500 operational nuclear weapons according to the United States Department of Defense. The specific details of nuclear weapons, including their capabilities, is of course, ‘classified’. What we do know is that the most powerful of these weapons are around the 1.2-megaton yield, which is the equivalent of 1 million tons of conventional explosives such as artillery shells, grenades, and airborne bombs loaded with TNT. Most nuclear missiles or ‘ICBMs’ can carry 6-8 separate nuclear warheads with an average yield of 400 kilotons each. But there were bombs far more powerful and devastating. You’ve probably heard of the famous nuclear device; ‘Tsar Bomba’, also known as ‘Big Ivan’ a few times by now. But there may be a couple of things you didn’t know about this awe-inspiring nuclear device. We all know it was the single most powerful nuclear weapon ever made and tested on Earth, releasing the largest man-made explosion ever recorded in history. New study and observations put the yield of the explosion from Tsar Bomba at 57-megatons, or the equivalent of 57-million tons of TNT. It remains unmatched in its destructive power, but also in its futility. The bomb was useless because it was far too large and heavy for it to be considered a practical weapon. Producing such a weapon in 1961 was a huge undertaking, literally. It was so big that a Tupolev Tu-95V bomber had to be modified by removing the bomb bay doors and fuselage fuel tanks, just to carry the 27-ton bomb [59,525 lbs]. It measured a whopping 26-feet in length [8-meters], and almost 7-feet in diameter [2-meters]. The interesting thing aside from the sheer size of the Tsar Bomba is that it was designed to be a 100-megaton capable bomb. It was a three-stage hydrogen bomb that used a fission-type atomic bomb as the first stage to compress a thermonuclear second stage, which in turn compressed a much larger thermonuclear third stage. An d evidence shows that the Tsar Bomba utilized several third stages, not just one. It could have yielded more than 100-megatons, but the bomb had a ‘toned down’ design that involved a tamper; which is an optional layer of dense material surrounding the fissile material. To minimize the radioactive fallout, the third stage had a lead tamper instead of a uranium-238 fusion tamper. Had the bomb included a uranium-238 tamper, Big Ivan would have produced a yield in excess of 100-megaton s. That’s because a uranium tamper greatly amplifies the reaction by fissioning uranium atoms with fast neutrons from the fusion reaction, thereby greatly amplifying the magnitude of the explosion. But by using a lead tamper, fast fissioning was eliminated, and thermonuclear fusion accounted for 97% of Tsar Bomba’s yield, meaning a much cleaner and smaller explosion. In fact, the bomb didn’t produce as much nuclear radioactivity because of the lead tampers. The smaller explosion als o allowed the bomber that dropped the weapon to get far enough away to survive the explosion. However, the explosion was still huge. The bomb was dropped over the Mityushikha Bay test site on the deserted island of Novaya Zemlya, and exploded 4 kilometers [2.5 kilometers] above the ground. It produced a huge mushroom cloud more than 37 miles high [60-kilometers]. The flash of the detonation was seen 620 miles away [1,000 kilometers] and was capable of inflicting third-degree burns on anyone within a distance of 62 miles [100-kilometers] It definitely would have been visible from Earth’s orbit, had there been any astronauts to see it. But in the end ‘Tsar Bomba’ had no strategic value other than intimidation, but it didn’t  intimidate anyone because American scientists pointed out its size, and that fact alone made  it strategically pointless. Furthermore, testing shows a 100-megaton bomb releases only 10 times  the energy of a 10-megaton bomb, but doesn’t do 1 0 times more damage. This has to do with  the non-linear blast effects of explosions. So a 100-megaton explosion is only a little more  than twice as damaging as a 10-megaton bomb. But on the other hand, the weight of nuclear weapons  does roughly scale in a more linear fashion. A 100-megaton bomb weighs 10 times more than  a 10-megaton bomb, making it that much more difficult to deploy on a missile or a bomber. Since then, nuclear weapons have smaller yields, and have been more of a de terrent to nuclear war.  But lately, there has been some nuclear saber rattling by some individuals. The chances of a  nuclear war breaking out could be a reality. In fact, the Doomsday clock is currently set at 90  seconds to midnight… the closest it’s ever been set to midnight since it was created. So what kind of damage could a nuclear strike from  the two countries that have the most nuclear weapons do? There have been some new missiles making the headlines lately. The Russian Feder ation has the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic  missile. Nicknamed Satan II after the previous R-36 or SS-18 Satan ICBM. The  RS-28 Sarmat can carry 15 light nuclear warheads, or multiple re-entry vehicles,  called MIRVS for short, and each is capable of gliding and hitting a different target. The LGM-35A Sentinel is the United States Air Force’s next-gen intercontinental ballistic  missile, taking the place of the 5-decade-old Minuteman III. The  Sentinel can also carry multip le warheads, such as the 475 kiloton W87 thermonuclear  warhead formerly deployed on the LGM-118A Peacekeeper ICBM. The fact that all of these ICBMs can carry multiple warheads means that the chances of  surviving the explosions, and the nuclear winter that follows, will depend on where you live,  and how fast you can hide in a fallout shelter. In an all out nuclear attack, there are too many  different factors involved to say exactly what will happen, such as not knowing how  many mis siles may be intercepted on each side. But because hypersonic glide vehicles are incredibly  hard to shoot down on their way in, the damage would probably be devastating on both sides. But one thing remains; It doesn’t matter who starts a nuclear war, there will be no winners. One side launches nuclear missiles, and the other side detects the launch and counter attacks with  their own nuclear strike before impact. Ballistic missiles from the submarines of  both sides are launched. The fi rst thermonuclear strikes create electro-magnetic pulses that fry  electronics and power grids. The next targets are command-and-control centers and other  nuclear launch sites. All land based ICBMs take 30 minutes after launch to reach their targets. Each nuclear warhead that makes it through air defenses would explode  with a fireball nearly as hot as the core of the Sun, followed by a blastwave that would  vaporize anything caught in its path. Any survivors in areas not directly  af fected by the blast would have to deal with firestorms and high levels of radioactivity. But the worst would be yet to come. All the black carbon smoke from the nuclear explosions,  and firestorms they created, would end up high in the stratosphere,  where high-altitude jet streams would spread it across the skies. Some studies say this black smoke and dust would create a nuclear winter, and cool the planet by 40 degrees Fahrenheit [20 Celsius]. Without supplies, those people still a live would end up starving or perishing from the effects of radioactivity sickness. We really have no idea how many survivors there would be in a nuclear war, but could all this nuclear war destroy the planet? As in ‘break it’ and actually blow it up? Not a chance. Even Tsar Bomba was nothing when it comes to what planet Earth is capable of withstanding. The estimated yield of the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was the equivalent of 200-megatons of TNT, four times the yield of Ts ar Bomba. The eruption sent 5 cubic miles [21 cubic kilometers] of shattered rock into the air. The volcano belched out an ink black cloud that spread over the sky leaving the land in complete darkness. Ash from the explosion nearly reached the edge of space some 50 miles up [80 kilometers], and filtered out enough solar radiation to lower global temperatures by almost 1 degree Fahrenheit [0.5 degrees Celsius] for an entire year after the eruption. And nothing man-made can even co me close when we compare it to the largest explosion that ever happened on Earth; the Chicxulub impact event. The Chicxulub asteroid that smacked into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico some 66 million years ago was thought to be between 10-15 kilometers wide. But it was traveling so fast, about 44,712 miles per hour [72,000 kilometers per hour] that the impact formed a crater 93 miles wide [150-kilometers].  you think our puny nuclear weapons could blow something up? Even if you could somehow put all the nuclear weapons on the planet in a pile, and detonate them all at once, it wouldn’t do anywhere near the same damage that Chicxulub did. We’re talking about a blast the equivalent of 2 million Tsar Bomba’s exploding. Despite the huge impact and explosion nearly wiping out all life on planet Earth, the planet is still spinning and still full of life. In fact, the Earth has been through a lot of asteroids, volcanoes, and earthquakes that make our most powerful nuclear weapons seem tiny by comparison. And what about the moon? Could we destroy our satellite if it ever happened to threaten our planet like in some of those silly movies? Let’s not forget that the Moon is ¼ the size of Earth with a diameter of 2,159 miles [3,475 kilometers]. If you fired all the nuclear weapons we have at the moon, it would shrug them of f as if someone was tossing a handful of pebbles at it. So forget about blowing up the planet, or the moon, with nuclear weapons. But there is one weapon that would probably put an end to all life for good on planet Earth, IF this doomsday device was ever designed and used. It’s a terrifying weapon known as a Cobalt bomb. We’ve seen some other sources hint that cobalt increases the nuclear yield. Well, that’s not the truth. The truth is actually more horrifying. Because what it lacks in explosive power, it makes up for in radioactivity. This bomb is also known as a ‘salted’ or ‘dirty’ bomb that rains down huge amounts of radioactive material in a wide radius after the explosion. In other words, if the explosive fireball and shockwave didn’t get you, the enhanced amount of radioactive fallout will. Its concept was first originally described by physicist Leó Szilárd in 1950. He wasn’t proposing that such a weapon be built, but instead describing that nuclear te chnology would soon reach the point of ending all human life on Earth. In other words, a true doomsday device. So how would this doomsday device work? Remember how we talked about the lead tampers in Tsar Bomba earlier in the video? They are what made the explosion ‘cleaner’ when it came to the radioactive fallout left behind.
When the bomb explodes, the intense neutron flux from the explosion converts the cobalt to deadly ‘cobalt-60’ which is then vaporized by the explosion. That vaporized cobalt would then condense and fall back to earth with the dust and debris from the explosion, contaminating everything it touches. Even if you were to escape and hide in a fallout shelter, the high-energy gamma ray emitting cobalt-60 has a half-life of 5.27 years. That’s a long time to wait around for it, and everything around it, to decay. Maybe some creatur s for everyone on the planet. Those are scary things to imagine. Let us all hope that no one ever designs such a weapon, but more importantly, that no one ever uses nuclear weapons at all. As we said before”