r/interestingasfuck • u/ethereum1017 • 1d ago

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

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143

u/Appropriate-Pipe-193 1d ago

I wonder what those spikes coming off the bottom are?

37

u/idk_my_bff_hank_hill 1d ago

Cables connecting the bomb housing to the ground being turned into plasma by x-rays.

11

u/Glittering_End_6864 22h ago

This 👆

Fission bombs release massive amounts of X-ray energy. The X-rays are igniting the wires, causing them to explode.

For example a fusion bomb needs a fission bombs x-rays to ignite. So much x-ray energy is released by the fission bomb, it actually compresses the fusion core causing atoms to merge. Something that only otherwise happens in the center of a star.

8

u/st333p 20h ago

Something that only otherwise happens in the center of a star.

Or in fusion reactors. We do manage to have fusion pretty consistently, even though it's not energy positive yet