The Tsar Bomb was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated and a few days ago Rosatom released a video with new footage from the historic moment. The new footage from the distant 1961 was released by the Russian Rosatom a few days before the 71st anniversary of the first atomic bomb test in the Soviet Union, in 1949.
Rosatom's 30-minute video chronicles the events of October 1961 when the Soviet Union detonated its 50-megaton nuclear weapon on a remote Arctic island. Originally known as "Plan 202", the colossal size and intensity of power earned the bomb the nickname "Tsar", i.e. the king of bombs!
Indicative of the incredible power of this particular bomb is the fact that the most powerful US bomb measured "only" 22 megatons and it was the "Castle Bravo" test in 1952. The nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima had a power of 16 kilotons. Compared to the last one, the 50 megaton "Tsar Bomb" was 1,325 times more powerful!
The incredible power of the "Tsar" hydrogen bomb comes from nuclear fusion, the same phenomenon recorded in the Sun! In the disputed test, the bomb was loaded onto a specially modified Tu-95V bomber. The drop was from an altitude of about 34,000 feet and the firing was about 13,000 feet above the ground to minimize radiation.
The nuclear "mushroom" that was caused reached a height of almost 10 km, while the explosion was visible at a distance of almost 1,000 km! The shock wave was unprecedented, with wooden structures flattened and windows shattered hundreds of kilometers away! Fortunately, the bomb was never used in armed conflict or manufactured again.
SOURCE:SPUTNIK