What Is The Strongest Nuclear Bomb – Tsar-Bomb
Like most other wars in the history of the Cold War was accompanied by great scientific achievements – but the most important were related to missile plants that German scientists continued to develop smoothly since World War II – just not for the Nazis, but for the Allies.
Thus, Wernher von Braun, creator of the infamous V-2 rockets that caused terror in London, soon became known as the ‘Father of Rocket Science’, the creator of rockets, which in 1958 launched the first American artificial satellite, Explorer I. This happened only a year after the first satellite in space – Soviet Sputnik 1.
United States and Soviet Union at the time of the first studies of the Universe are deep in the Cold War that tends to focus on espionage and developing military technology.
Since the America has already demonstrated its nuclear force at the end of World War II (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), the order was for the Soviets to show their nuclear achievements.
Strongest Nuclear Bomb
In 1961 the Soviets made RDS-220 hydrogen bomb, known as Tsar Bomba or Ivan the Great – the most powerful explosive device that people have ever made – 1,400 times stronger than two nuclear bombs (together) dropped on Japan in World War II.
The idea for the Tsar bomb was built into the head of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, the then president of the USSR, which was primarily wanted to show America that the Soviets have a powerful nuclear weapon. The idea was presented to its main weapons designer, Andrei Sakharov, and at the same time he said he wanted to “show the imperialists what we [Russia] can do ‘. It is not clear when exactly was created the idea for the bomb of 100 megatons, and who first made the proposal, but what we know is that Khrushchev task was simple: to make a bomb that would ‘break the record’.
Sakharov was soon assembled a team of five experts that are for a record time succeeded to design and build bomb capable of completely destroying any global metropolis. The amazing fact is that them for this project was necessary only 14-16 weeks.
Tsar Bomba was originally conceived as a 100 megaton bomb, but this power halved in half due to obvious reasons. Even the 50 megaton nuclear was simply too massive to hit any target (eg in the US), and was so strong that the survival rate for pilots and crew on the plane is estimated at 50%, and that while flying 10 km above the ground – 45 km from the bomb explosion.
Soviet aim was to break the world record and demonstrate its power to the world, and the Tsar bomb has met all its expectations. Halved to “only” 50 megatons, was 3,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. But that’s not the only record that was achieved. In addition, it was by far the strongest, it was the purest nuclear bomb – 97% of the potential consequences (of radiation) was successfully removed.
The day when the Tsar bomb exploded
30 October 1961, the Soviets were finally ready to show the world what it’s like an explosion of 50 megatons. However, in the final stage there are new problems. Even the Tupolev Tu-95, one of the biggest (then) bombers in the world, could not handle this 27-ton and more than 8 meters long bomb. Instead of spending time on making new aircraft, engineers have modified existing in a simple way – remove the part of the floor and in its place built a bomb.
When all the preparations were completed, the plane was ready for take-off and releasing the largest explosive devices the world has ever seen.
The bomb was dropped from a height of 10,500 feet, and there was also a parachute that slowed the drop and gave the crew in an aircraft enough time to get away from the explosion. At 1:32 local time Tsar bomb was dropped on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya (islands in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Russia). The detonation was so powerful that earthquake felt in Finland (900 km away) where they are at on some houses even windows shattered, and the shock wave was so powerful that it orbited Earth three times. Fireball was the 8 km wide, and the cloud created after the explosion was a high 65 km.
The explosion wiped out all the face of the earth within 35 km, and even the buildings in the abandoned village 55 km away were completely razed to the ground. Photographers who later reached the zero point, describe what it was: “No sign of prominence in the field …. Everything in this area is swept, washed, melted and blown away.”
Shortly after the explosion, when the others saw that the Soviets may in a few months to make a bomb that can turn the whole city into a piece of smooth glass, 87 states had asked the Soviet Union to spare the world of further “Tsar bombs” because of the danger to the health of millions of people.
Horrified with the power of the bomb, Sakharov, one of the main architects of the bomb, soon is himself became a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons. You can read also How do Nuclear Bunkers Work!
Facts about strongest nuclear bomb:
- 3,000 times stronger than Hiroshima bomb
- designed and constructed for couple months
- shock wave was so powerful that it orbited Earth three times
- survival rate for crew that drop bomb is 50%
You can read also First Nuclear Reactor in USA and Nuclear Fission vs Fusion!
Comments are closed.