#nuclearbomb — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #nuclearbomb, aggregated by home.social.
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Orbiting Armageddon: Russia’s #EMP Threat from Space and Transatlantic Responses
Apr 17, 2025
Excerpt: "If a #NuclearBomb were detonated in orbit, the physical effects would be unlike a typical terrestrial nuclear blast. There would be no mushroom cloud or shock wave in the vacuum of space. Instead, the weapon’s energy would be released as intense radiation and electromagnetic pulses (Scientific American).
"#Satellites within line of sight of the explosion would be instantly subjected to a blinding flash of gamma rays and X-rays, likely frying their electronics on contact (Scientific American). Moments after, a powerful #EMP would form as the bomb’s gamma radiation ionizes the upper atmosphere. This process, known as the #ComptonEffect, releases billions of high-energy electrons that race along Earth’s magnetic field lines (Scientific American). The result is an expanding wave of electromagnetic energy.
"U.S. defense officials have described this kind of space-triggered EMP as a 'massive energy wave' that could 'destroy satellites' and disrupt a vast swath of the satellites that the world depends on for communication and commerce (Carnegie). In essence, one orbital blast could simultaneously knock out numerous satellites – military and civilian – that are crucial to GPS navigation, telephone and internet links, financial transactions, weather forecasting, and more.
"An EMP from space could also induce chaos on the ground. The pulse would interact with Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field to send geomagnetically induced currents surging through power lines and electronic networks (Aerospace America). In 1962, the U.S. #StarfishPrime test proved this danger: although detonated 400 kilometers above the Pacific, its EMP caused voltage spikes that blew out 300 streetlights and knocked out telephone lines in Hawaii, nearly 1,500 kilometers away (Scientific American , Aerospace America).
"An orbital detonation today, especially if positioned over populated regions, could overload electrical grids across vast areas. Transformers and grid infrastructure could be destroyed by the sudden, uncontrolled currents (Aerospace America). The scale of blackout could range over one or several countries, depending on the weapon’s altitude and yield. Experts warn that such a scenario would be devastating.
"A U.S. Congressional commission on EMP found that a nationwide power outage caused by a high-altitude nuclear blast could collapse critical infrastructure – an outcome it described as a potential
'civilization killer' if power and services were not restored quickly (Carnegie). In addition to massive economic damage, the disruption of communication and radar networks would impair defense capabilities, complicating crisis management during the very moment it’s most needed."Beyond the immediate blast and pulse, a space-based nuclear explosion would have a long-duration effect that could be even more damaging to space infrastructure. The explosion’s charged particles would become trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, forming an artificial radiation belt encircling the planet (Scientific American).
"This is exactly what happened after Starfish Prime: a man-made #RadiationBelt lingered for years, eventually destroying a third of all satellites in orbit at the time (Scientific American). In today’s environment, with thousands of satellites, the consequences would be dire. The intense radiation would bathe #LowEarthOrbit, causing surviving satellites to degrade and fail over the ensuing days, weeks, and months (Aerospace America). Many satellites that weren’t immediately destroyed would succumb to this enhanced radiation environment.
"Nearly 10,000 active satellites now orbit Earth, and most are not designed to withstand extreme nuclear radiation (Aerospace America). Critical constellations – for example, #SpaceX’s #Starlink network of small satellites (over 6,000 in orbit) that provides high-speed broadband, including to Ukrainian forces – would likely be heavily degraded or completely knocked offline (Scientific American). Replacement of satellites would be hampered as well: the orbital 'fallout' zone could remain dangerous for new satellites for years, denying space to any fresh deployments (Aerospace America). Even astronauts and cosmonauts in space could be in peril."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/PPMrQ#NoNukesInSpace #LEO #KesslerEffect
#KesslerSyndrome #NoNukes #NoWar #NuclearWeapons #Satellites -
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Manhattan Project (But Were Afraid to Ask) - There have been plenty of books and movies about how the Manhattan Project brought... - https://hackaday.com/2025/09/12/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-manhattan-project-but-were-afraid-to-ask/ #manhattanproject #nuclearbomb #science
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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Manhattan Project (But Were Afraid to Ask) https://hackaday.com/2025/09/12/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-manhattan-project-but-were-afraid-to-ask/ #ManhattanProject #nuclearbomb #Science
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#Editorial | Fire Israel's Far Right
Sunday’s remark by Heritage Minister Amichai #Eliyahu (Otzma #Yehudit), who said that dropping a #nuclearbomb on the #GazaStrip is an option, is a problem not for #Israeli public diplomacy but rather for Israeli reality.
The problem is not any particular statement, but rather the power and legitimacy enjoyed today, in Israel as a whole and in the government, by the #Kahanist, messianic Jewish far right, which supports# annexation and #occupation and Jewish prayer on the #TempleMount, sees the current war as an opportunity and scorns the international community, international institutions and the laws of war.
This was not a slip of the tongue. In an interview with Radio Kol Barama, Eliyahu said that “there are no uninvolved [civilians]” in the Gaza Strip. Asked by his interviewer whether that meant Israel should drop a nuclear bomb on the Strip, he responded, “That’s one way.” And his subsequent “clarification” – “It is clear to anyone who is sensible that the nuclear remark was metaphorical” – is ridiculous. A #metaphor for what?
Nor is he a lone exception. Eliyahu’s party colleague, lawmaker Yitzhak #Kroizer, told Army Radio on Sunday that “the #Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one sentence for everyone there – death. We have to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.” Entire swaths of the government belong to the dangerous far right: Bezalel #Smotrich, Itamar Ben-#Gvir, Simcha #Rothman, Orit #Strock, Avi #Maoz, Zvi #Sukkot, Limor Son Har-#Melech and their confederates.
Prime Minister Benjamin #Netanyahu’s response was lame. Eliyahu’s statement, he said, was “disconnected from reality,” and the minister will be barred from cabinet meetings until further notice. He ought to have fired Eliyahu, but he chose not to do so; he prioritized preserving his government over preserving Israel.
Netanyahu isn’t the solution, but the problem. He has legitimized Kahanism and the far right. During his years in power, Israel has grown more extreme, and people who used to be loathsome #pariahs are now senior cabinet #ministers. Ideas and values that used to be outside the consensus, such as “transferring” Arabs from Israel, a second #Nakba and Jewish prayer on the #TempleMount, have been normalized under Netanyahu’s irresponsible #leadership.
He is the one who lent legitimacy to political alliances with admirers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the mass murderer Baruch #Goldstein and the murderer of the #Dawabsheh family. Under his leadership, the settlers have begun setting their sights on the #WestBank’s Area B, which under the #Oslo Accords is under #Israeli security control and #Palestinian civilian control. And the settlers’ radical “hilltop youth” have moved from being intelligence targets of the Shin Bet security service to serving as ministers, #Knesset members, aides and advisers.
The far right’s membership in the government has painted the entire government, and all of #Israel, in far-right colors. The only way to solve the problem is to remove the far right from the government, and from the bounds of Israeli legitimacy. The only way to repudiate Eliyahu’s statement is to repudiate him and those like him. The Otzma Yehudit and Religious #Zionism parties must be fired from the #cabinet immediately.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.