Posted on 04/04/2013 3:44:13 AM PDT by lbryce
THERE ARE MANY MORE IMAGES AT THE SITE
Full Title: Ultra-Fast Nuclear Detonation Picture
While the image above is the stereotypical picture of a nuclear explosion, in reality by the time the classic mushroom cloud has formed all the interesting detail is long over. The following images, borrowed from several sources, show the eerie and complex patterns atomic detonations create immediately after they are triggered. Most of the following images were taken using Rapatronic cameras, ultra-high speed, single-frame cameras developed in the 1940s by Dr. Harold Edgerton. The duration of the exposure is typically 10 nanoseconds (0.00000001 of a second. That's so short that light, which can travel a distance equal to 7 times around the earth in 1 second, would only cover 98 feet.)
This image captures two common elements: the spikes (called "rope tricks") and an uneven surface shape.
At this stage of the detonation the surface of the fireball has a temperature of 20,000 degrees, three times hotter than the sun's surface. At such temperatures the amount of thermal radiation (light) given off is so enormous anything it touches is vaporized ahead of the expanding fireball. The three spikes in this image result from the guide wires supporting the tower on which the bomb was located absorbing enough heat to turn into light emitting plasma. Because thermal radiation travels faster than the fireball, the spikes extend out ahead of it.
Experiments with different support wires showed that if they were painted black to better absorb radiation they were longer. If painted with a reflective silver paint they don't appear at all.
One might expect an explosive fireball to expand in a perfect sphere. Actually, variations in the density of the bomb's surrounding case create the mottlings and and complex shapes in many of these images.
While the image above is the stereotypical picture of a nuclear explosion, in reality by the time the classic mushroom cloud has formed all the interesting detail is long over. The following images, borrowed from several sources, show the eerie and complex patterns atomic detonations create immediately after they are triggered. Most of the following images were taken using Rapatronic cameras, ultra-high speed, single-frame cameras developed in the 1940s by Dr. Harold Edgerton. The duration of the exposure is typically 10 nanoseconds (0.00000001 of a second. That's so short that light, which can travel a distance equal to 7 times around the earth in 1 second, would only cover 98 feet.)
This image captures two common elements: the spikes (called "rope tricks") and an uneven surface shape.
At this stage of the detonation the surface of the fireball has a temperature of 20,000 degrees, three times hotter than the sun's surface. At such temperatures the amount of thermal radiation (light) given off is so enormous anything it touches is vaporized ahead of the expanding fireball. The three spikes in this image result from the guide wires supporting the tower on which the bomb was located absorbing enough heat to turn into light emitting plasma. Because thermal radiation travels faster than the fireball, the spikes extend out ahead of it.
Experiments with different support wires showed that if they were painted black to better absorb radiation they were longer. If painted with a reflective silver paint they don't appear at all.
One might expect an explosive fireball to expand in a perfect sphere. Actually, variations in the density of the bomb's surrounding case create the mottlings and and complex shapes in many of these images.
The support tower in the image above provides a convenient size scale. Most of the above images capture the fireball when it is 100 feet in diameter, typically 0.001 seconds after the control operator pressed the "fire" button.
The image above was taken 20 milliseconds later than the others and shows the fireball expanded to 300 feet in diameter, the size of a football field. Instead of a sphere, the fireball has become large enough so that its bottom is in contact with the earth. The even, light grey ring near the bottom of the smooth fireball (more properly called a firedome in this case) is the convolution of the shock wave from the fireball and the reflection of that shock wave from the surface of the earth. This doubly-enhanced shock wave is the area of maximum destructive force, as shown by the expanding ring of rubble below it. For any given bomb size, there is an optimum altitude at which to detonate it to make use of this reflected shock effect to maximize damage.
The support tower in the image above provides a convenient size scale. Most of the above images capture the fireball when it is 100 feet in diameter, typically 0.001 seconds after the control operator pressed the "fire" button.
The previous images were of smaller nuclear devices measured in tens to hundreds of kilotons. The one immediately above was taken of the Ivy MIKE device with a rating of 10.7 megatons.
This one image here, my favorite is one I've called Michelle. Why? You figure it out.
Amazing!
Is that a lobster tail in its mouth?
We put a homicidal moslem communist in charge of ours.
"..Dude,surfs up"
Way cool nuke pics. I’d have never guessed.
Yes, indeed.
Well, certainly, some adult in your family support group saw the budding color by number genius in you and did their best stifle whatever it was before it got too big and out of control.
I’m afraid with the amateurish foreign policy and the moron usurper in the oval office, some Americans may get to see these images again up close and personal, courtesy of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The images have been out there. What impresses me most is that much of the energy comes from only several grams of material.
“Ok, who is going to volunteer for observation ship duty this morning?”
Novaya Zemlya is about 30,000 square miles, about the size of Panama, and here is its blast zone.
BFL. That is freaking cool. Love photos/vids of atomics
Someone got their math wrong on the comment about how far light travels in a nanosecond. It’s about 10 inches if I recall correctly. I remember seeing a documentary with Grace Hopper who talked about it.
Grace Hopper is famous for her nanoseconds visual aid. People (such as generals and admirals) used to ask her why satellite communication took so long. She started handing out pieces of wire which were just under one foot long (11.80 inches), which is the distance that light travels in one nanosecond. She gave these pieces of wire the metonym "nanoseconds."[29] She was careful to tell her audience that the length of her nanoseconds was actually the maximum speed the signals would travel in a vacuum, and that signals would travel more slowly through the actual wires that were her teaching aids. Later she used the same pieces of wire to illustrate why computers had to be small to be fast. At many of her talks and visits, she handed out "nanoseconds" to everyone in the audience, contrasting them with a coil of wire nearly a thousand feet long, representing a microsecond. Later, while giving these lectures while working for DEC, she passed out packets of pepper which she called picoseconds.[30]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.