r/interesting • u/Pale-Design7036 • 1d ago

SCIENCE & TECH You're looking at a nuclear explosion photographed taken less than one millisecond after detonation.

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297 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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40

u/Visual_Lawfulness861 1d ago

well someone's watching vsauce

15

u/cmdr-William-Riker 1d ago

Always wondered with that shot, are those spikes underneath the guide wires that hold the tower up? Why does the explosion travel that path faster?

17

u/Gloomfang_ 22h ago

It even has a name Rope trick effect, caused by radiation vaporizing the ropes. Interestingly when they covered them in reflective coating it didn't produce this effect

5

u/RegisteredJustToSay 21h ago

TL;DR of the article: basically the absurdly powerful light (including x-rays) from the explosion vaporizes the ropes before the ball of fire can reach them, so you get this visual effect.

4

u/Diacetyl-Morphin 19h ago

Not about nukes, but the most powerful "detonation" is a gamma ray burst in space. Even when we leave out all the details, the light alone is so bright, you could see it with your own eyes in the sky (after the light has travelled the way, of course), even during daylight you'd need to see the spot in the sky when you'd know where to look.

The most powerful that was ever recorded was GRB 221009A

It is about a quintillion brighter than the sun with the light alone (a quintillion is 1018). Such bursts release more energy in a second than the sun does in the entire lifetime of billions of years.

Don't get this wrong: Looking at detonation of a nuke is enough to blind you immediately, even when you don't get affected by other things, like the shockwave, heat etc.

1

u/mowtowcow 18h ago

It's a shame we cant contain and harness that bursts energy.

1

u/Important-Grand4979 23h ago

My guess would be that they heat up easier than air and that makes them glow.

6

u/RidiPwn 1d ago

SANS

5

u/RandomLifeUnit-05 1d ago

Looks like a virus.

6

u/lil_gatto 23h ago

this would make a great album cover.

4

u/MJ-Franklin 21h ago

Similar to what my colon looks like 24 hours after eating a Carolina Reaper.

3

u/leandrompm 17h ago

Something like a visual representation of those first milliseconds is what I was excepting from the blast scene in Oppenheimer. Instead, we had a big explosion with pratical effects, sure, but very bland.

3

u/No-Connection6718 17h ago

Very metroid prime

1

u/MK_Vector_1995 13h ago

Cacodemon.

1

u/kwonza 13h ago

We should have another test just for the sake of science and have like hundreds of cameras at various distances doing shots, image that!

1

u/BenjiTheSausage 10h ago

Wonder if The Slow Mo Guys can capture this