“America is building a new weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear missile the length of a bowling lane,” writes the contributing editor for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (in an article shared by Slashdot reader DanDrollette): It will be able to travel some 6,000 miles, carrying a warhead more than 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on…
Tag: bombs
What are coronal mass ejections?
Coronal mass ejections – CMEs for short – are powerful eruptions near the surface of the sun that can ripple through our solar system and can interrupt satellites and power grids on Earth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/what-are-coronal-mass-ejections…
Spacecraft design could get to Titan in only 2 years using a direct fusion drive
Fusion power is the technology that is 30 years away, and always will be, according to skeptics, at least. Despite its difficult transition into a reliable power source, the nuclear reactions that power the sun have a wide variety of uses in other fields. The most obvious is in weapons; hydrogen bombs are to this day the most powerful weapons we…
‘The Largest Nuclear Bomb Ever Detonated’ Explored in Declassified Russian Footage
“The blast was over 3,000 times bigger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima,” reports Smithsonian magazine: Hydrogen bombs are so destructive, their impact has been described as unthinkable throughout history. Recently declassified Russian footage of the 1961 Tsar Bomba hydrogen bomb test shows why. The 40-minute documentary, which was posted on YouTube on August 20, shows footage of the largest bomb…
Human-linked Earth vibrations dropped 50% during Covid-19 lockdown
Between March and May 2020, many people across Earth went into lockdown. During those months, seismographs recorded a drop in human-linked vibrations in the solid Earth, by an average of 50%. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/covid19-lockdown-2020-caused-50-percent-global-reduction-human-linked-earth-vibrations…
Nishinoshima volcano belches ash and lava
A young volcanic island in the western Pacific Ocean has been going through a vigorous growth spurt since mid-June 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/nishinoshima-volcano-belches-active-june-july-2020…
The F-16’s Replacement Won’t Have a Pilot At All
“The next combat aircraft to enter the U.S. Air Force inventory will not be a manned sixth-generation fighter or even the Northrop Grumman B-21,” reports Aviation Week. “By fiscal 2023, the Air Force expects to deliver the first operational versions of a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) called Skyborg, a provocative portmanteau blending the medium of flight with the contraction for…
Penguins shoot ‘poop bombs’ more than 4 feet, incredibly important study finds
How much force must a penguin apply in order to blast a flying poop projectile, and how far can it travel? Fortunately for us all, scientists now have answers. Source: https://www.livescience.com/pengins-projectile-poo.html
How to see Comet NEOWISE
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) is basically a binocular object, although some experienced observers with pristine skies are reporting they can see it with the eye alone. This post has information and charts that will help you see the comet. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-comet-c2020-f3-neowise…
Can energy be sucked out of a black hole?
In a very distant future, black hole bombs will be the only hope for any civilization to thrive. This would be a universe with immense, isolated sources of energy, shining bright in an otherwise completely black sky. Source: https://www.livescience.com/extract-energy-from-black-holes.html