RDS-220
The Tsar Bomba mushroom cloud
Type	Thermonuclear weapon
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Production history
Number built	1
Specifications
Weight	27 tonnes
Length	8 meters
Diameter	2 meters
Blast yield	50 megatons

Tsar Bomba (Царь-бомба, literally "Emperor Bomb") is the Western name for the RDS-220 hydrogen bomb (codenamed "Иван" (Ivan) by its developers) — the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. The Teller–Ulam design is a Nuclear weapon design which is used in Megaton -range Thermonuclear weapons and is more colloquially referred to as "the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 An emperor (from the Latin " Imperator " is a (male Monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an Empire or another type of The Teller–Ulam design is a Nuclear weapon design which is used in Megaton -range Thermonuclear weapons and is more colloquially referred to as "the A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT; however that was reduced by half in order to limit the amount of nuclear fallout that would result. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of Energy, called the Yield, discharged when a Nuclear weapon is detonated expressed usually Fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a Nuclear explosion, so named because it "falls out" of the atmosphere into which it is spread during the explosion Two bombs were built, a mock bomb and the real bomb, with the real bomb being tested on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Events 637 - Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Novaya Zemlya (Но́вая Земля́ also spelled Novaja Zemlja, lit An archipelago (ɑrkəˈpɛləgoʊ is a chain or cluster of Islands The word archipelago literally means "chief Sea " from Italian ^[1] Despite testing, the weapon never entered service; it was simply a demonstration of the capabilities of the Soviet Union's military technology at that time. The mock bomb was stored in the Russian Nuclear Weapons Museum in Sarov. For the villages in Azerbaijan see Sarov Azerbaijan and Bəyimsarov.

Origins

Site of the detonation.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev initiated the project on July 10, 1961, requesting that the test take place in late October, while the 22nd Congress of the CPSU was in session. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 17 1894 – September 11 1971 served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 following Events 48 BC - Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The 22nd Congress of the Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held from October 17 to October 31, 1961.

The term "Tsar Bomba" was coined in an analogy with two other massive Russian objects, the Tsar Kolokol, the world's largest bell, and the Tsar Pushka, the world's largest howitzer. The Tsar Bell ( Russian: Царь–колокол Tsar Kolokol, literally " Tsar of bells" is a huge bell on display on the grounds Tsar Pushka ( Царь-пушка, literally " Tsar -cannon" is a huge Cannon, Commissioned in 1586 by Russian Tsar Feodor A howitzer is a type of Artillery piece that is characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small explosive charges to propel projectiles Although the bomb was so named by Western sources, the name is now widely used in Russia.

The Soviet Union used it as a deterrent to the United States during the Cold War. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the Khrushchev approved of the bomb's development during a very tense time; construction of the first Berlin wall began on August 13, 1961. The Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer was a physical barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic (GDR ( East Germany) including Events 3114 BC - According to the Lounsbury correlation the start of the Maya calendar. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Moreover, France was just emerging as the second Western European nuclear force on February 13, 1960 when Gerboise Bleue was successfully completed. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Events 1258 - Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Gerboise Bleue ("blue jerboa" was the name of the first French nuclear test. The USSR had ended a de facto moratorium on nuclear tests (which lasted for nearly three years) and was about to deploy nuclear weapons in Cuba, which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis; in response to the U. The Republic of Cuba (ˈkjuːbə or) consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles) Isla de la The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during the Cold War. S. deployment of nuclear weapons in Turkey.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly about the test, Khrushchev used the Russian idiom "show somebody Kuzka's mother", which means "to show who's the boss". Membership For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly see General Assembly members Because of this, sometimes the weapon is referred to as "Kuzka's mother" (Кузькина мать) in Russian sources.

Design

A Tsar Bomba-type casing on display at Chelyabinsk-70

The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage hydrogen bomb with a yield of about 50 megatons. Snezhinsk (Сне́жинск is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. The Teller–Ulam design is a Nuclear weapon design which is used in Megaton -range Thermonuclear weapons and is more colloquially referred to as "the The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of Energy, called the Yield, discharged when a Nuclear weapon is detonated expressed usually ^[2] This is equivalent to ten times the amount of all the explosives used in World War II combined. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including ^[3] A three-stage H-bomb uses a fission bomb primary to compress a thermonuclear secondary, as in most H-bombs, and then uses energy from the resulting explosion to compress a much larger additional hydrogen thermonuclear stage. Nuclear weapon designs are physical chemical and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate However, there is evidence that the Tsar Bomba had a number of third stages rather than a single very large one. ^[4]

The initial three stage design was capable of approximately 100 Mt (Megatons), but at a cost of too much radioactive fallout. To limit fallout, the third stage, and possibly the second stage, had a lead tamper instead of a uranium-238 fusion tamper (which greatly amplifies the reaction by fissioning uranium atoms with fast neutrons from the fusion reaction). Characteristics Lead has a dull luster and is a dense, Ductile, very soft highly Nuclear weapon designs are physical chemical and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate Uranium-238 (U-238 is the most common isotope of Uranium found in nature This eliminated fast fission by the fusion-stage neutrons, so that approximately 97% of the total energy resulted from fusion alone (as such, it was one of the "cleanest" nuclear bombs ever created, generating a very low amount of fallout relative to its yield). Fast fission is fission that occurs when a heavy Atom absorbs a high-energy Neutron, called a Fast neutron, and splits There was a strong incentive for this modification since most of the fallout from a test of the bomb would fall on populated Soviet territory.

The components were designed by a team of physicists which was headed by Academician Julii Borisovich Khariton and included Andrei Sakharov, Victor Adamsky, Yuri Babayev, Yuri Smirnov, and Yuri Trutnev. The title Academician denotes a Full Member of an art literary or scientific Academy. Yulii Borisovich Khariton ( Ю́лий Бори́сович Харито́н, February 27, 1904 - December 18, 1996) was a Soviet Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов (May 21 1921 – December 14 1989 was an eminent Soviet nuclear Physicist Yuri Petrovich Trutnev (Юрий Петрович Трутнев (born March 1, 1956) is a Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation since Shortly after the Tsar Bomba was detonated, Sakharov began speaking out against nuclear weapons, which culminated in him becoming a dissident. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Soviet dissidents were citizens of the Soviet Union who disagreed with the policies and actions of their government and actively protested against these actions through non-violent

The test

Dropped from over 10 km and detonated at 4 km high, the Tsar Bomba's fireball touched the ground, and nearly reached the altitude of the deploying Tu-95 bomber

The Tsar Bomba was flown to its test site by a specially modified Tu-95V release plane which took off from an airfield in the Kola peninsula, flown by Major Andrei E. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout The Kola Peninsula (from Sami language Guoládat) (Кольский полуостров Kol'skij poluostrov) is a Peninsula in the far Durnovtsev. The release plane was accompanied by a Tu-16 observer plane that took air samples and filmed the test. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Both aircraft were painted with a special reflective white paint to limit heat damage.

The bomb, weighing 27 tonnes, was so large (8 meters long by 2 m in diameter) that the Tu-95V had to have its bomb bay doors and fuselage fuel tanks removed. This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. A fuel tank is safe container for flammable liquids and typically part of an Engine system in which the Fuel is stored and propelled (fuel pump or released (pressurized The bomb was attached to an 800 kilogram fall-retardation parachute, which gave the release and observer planes time to fly about 45 km from ground zero. A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. The term Ground Zero may be used to describe the point on the earth's surface where an explosion occurs

The Tsar Bomba detonated at 11:32 a. m. on October 30, 1961 over the Mityushikha Bay nuclear testing range (Sukhoy Nos Zone C), north of the Arctic Circle on Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea. Events 637 - Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Novaya Zemlya (Но́вая Земля́ also spelled Novaja Zemlja, lit The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. The bomb was dropped from an altitude of 10,500 m; it was designed to detonate at a height of 4,000 m over the land surface (4,200 m over sea level) by barometric sensors. History The first barometer is thought to have been built unintentionally by Gasparo Berti, sometime between 1640 and 1643

The original U. S. estimate of the yield was 57 Mt, but since 1991 all Russian sources have stated its yield as 50 Mt. Khrushchev warned in a filmed speech to the Communist parliament of the existence of a 100 Mt bomb (technically the design was capable of this yield). The fireball touched the ground, reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane, and was seen and felt 1,000 km away. The energy released from a nuclear weapon detonated in the Troposphere can be divided into four basic categories Blast &mdash40-50% of total energy The heat from the explosion could have caused third degree burns 100 km away from ground zero. An explosion is a sudden increase in Volume and release of Energy in an extreme manner usually with the generation of high Temperatures and the release A burn is a type of Injury that may be caused by Heat, cold, Electricity, Chemicals, Light, Radiation, or The term Ground Zero may be used to describe the point on the earth's surface where an explosion occurs The subsequent mushroom cloud was about 60 km high (nearly seven times higher than Mount Everest) and 30–40 km wide. A mushroom cloud is a distinctive Mushroom -shaped Cloud of condensed Water vapor or Debris resulting from a very large Explosion. Mount Everest, also called Sagarmatha (सगरमाथा meaning Head of the Sky) or Chomolungma, Qomolangma or Zhumulangma (in At its peak it is well over 41 miles tall, and 27 miles thick. The explosion could be seen and felt in Finland, even breaking windows there. An explosion is a sudden increase in Volume and release of Energy in an extreme manner usually with the generation of high Temperatures and the release Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. ^[5] Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage up to 1,000 km away. Atmospheric focusing is a phenomenon occurring when a large shockwave is produced in the atmosphere, as in a Nuclear explosion or large extraterrestrial The seismic shock created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth. Seismic waves are Waves that travel through the Earth, most often as the result of a tectonic Earthquake, sometimes from an Explosion ^[6] Its Richter magnitude was about 5 to 5. The Richter magnitude scale, or more correctly local magnitude M L scale assigns a single number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released 25.

Since 50 Mt is 2. 1×10¹⁷ joules, the average power produced during the entire fission-fusion process, lasting around 39 nanoseconds, was about 5. The joule (written in lower case ˈdʒuːl or /ˈdʒaʊl/ (symbol J) is the SI unit of Energy measuring heat, Electricity 4×10²⁴ watts or 5. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. 4 yottawatts. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. This is equivalent to approximately 1. 4% of the power output of the Sun. The Sun (Sol is the Star at the center of the Solar System. [1]

The detonation of Tsar Bomba is the single most physically powerful device ever utilized throughout the history of humanity. In Physics, power (symbol P) is the rate at which work is performed or energy is transmitted or the amount of energy required or expended for Prehistory See also Prehistory Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens By contrast, the largest weapon ever produced by the United States, the now-decommissioned B41, had a predicted maximum yield of 25 Mt, and the largest nuclear device ever tested by the U. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons The B41 was a Thermonuclear weapon deployed by the United States Strategic Air Command in the early 1960s S. (Castle Bravo) yielded 15 Mt (due to a runaway reaction; the design yield was approximately 5 Mt). Castle Bravo was the Code name given to the first US test of a so-called dry fuel thermonuclear Hydrogen bomb device detonated on March 1, For comparison, the asteroid impact which formed the Chicxulub Crater, was an event larger than Tsar Bomba's yield by some six orders of magnitude; it released an estimated 500 zettajoules (5. The Chicxulub Crater (tʃikʃuˈlub is an ancient Impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. An order of magnitude is the class of scale or magnitude of any amount where each class contains values of a fixed ratio to the class preceding it 0×10²³ joules) of energy, approximately 100 teratons of TNT, on impact. A teraton is the equivalent in SI terms of being 100×1012 tons 1000 Gigatons 1000000 Megatons 1000000000 Kilotons or 1000000000000 Trinitrotoluene ( TNT) is a Chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO23CH3

Fifty megatons of 1. 654g/cm³ TNT would be about 30,230,000 cubic metres (1,067,000,000 cubic feet), or roughly a cube 300 metres (1000 feet) to a side.

Analysis

Comparative fireball radii for a selection of nuclear weapons, including the Tsar Bomba. Full blast effects extend many times beyond the radius of the fireball itself.

The weight and size of the Tsar Bomba limited the range and speed of the specially modified bomber carrying it and ruled out its delivery by an ICBM (although on December 24, 1962, a 50 Mt ICBM warhead developed by Chelyabinsk-70 was detonated at 24. Events 563 - The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by Earthquakes Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Snezhinsk (Сне́жинск is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. 2 megatons to reduce fallout). ^[7] In terms of physical destructiveness, much of its high yield was inefficiently radiated upwards into space. It has been estimated that detonating the original 100 Mt design would have released fallout amounting to about 25 percent of all fallout emitted since the invention of nuclear weapons. ^[8] Hence, the Tsar Bomba was an impractically powerful weapon. The Soviets decided that such a test blast would create too great a risk of nuclear fallout and a near certainty that the release plane would be unable to reach safety before detonation. ^[9]

The Tsar Bomba was the culmination of a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapons designed by the USSR and U. The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of Energy, called the Yield, discharged when a Nuclear weapon is detonated expressed usually Nuclear weapon designs are physical chemical and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate S. during the 1950s (examples include the Mark-17^[10] and B41). The Mark 17 and Mark 24 were the first mass produced Hydrogen bombs deployed by the United States. The B41 was a Thermonuclear weapon deployed by the United States Strategic Air Command in the early 1960s Such bombs were designed because:

• The nuclear bombs of the day were large and heavy, regardless of yield, and could only be delivered by strategic bombers. A strategic bomber is a heavy type Aircraft designed to drop large amounts of ordnance onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating an enemy's Hence yield was subject to dramatic economies of scale;
• It was feared that many bombers would fail to reach their targets because their size and low speed made detection and interception easy. Hence maximizing the firepower carried by any single bomber was vital;
• Prior to satellite intelligence, each side lacked precise knowledge of the location of the other side's military and industrial facilities;
• A bomb dropped without benefit of advanced inertial navigation systems could easily miss its intended target by six kilometres or more. Fire power is a military capability to direct force at an enemy A spy satellite (officially referred to as a reconnaissance satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or Communications satellite deployed for An Inertial Navigation System (INS is a Navigation aid that uses a Computer and motion sensors to continuously track the position orientation and Velocity Parachute retardation would only worsen the bomb's accuracy.

Thus certain bombs were designed to destroy an entire large city even if dropped five to ten kilometers from its centre. This objective meant that yield and effectiveness were positively correlated, at least up to a point. However, the advent of ICBMs accurate to 500 meters or better made such a design philosophy obsolete. Subsequent nuclear weapon design in the 1960s and 1970s focused primarily on increased accuracy, miniaturization, and safety. The standard practice for many years has been to employ multiple smaller warheads (MIRVs) to "carpet" an area. Typically a warhead is the Explosive material and Detonator that is delivered by a Missile, Rocket, or Torpedo. A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle ( MIRV) is a collection of Nuclear weapons carried on a single Intercontinental ballistic missile Carpet bombing refers to the tactical bombing of a strategic area usually by the use of large numbers of unguided Gravity bombs often with a high proportion of incendiary This is believed to result in greater ground damage.

See also

• Soviet atomic bomb project
• Father of all bombs

Notes and references

References

• Footage from a Soviet documentary about the bomb is featured in Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (Visual Concept Entertainment, 1995), where it is referred to as the Russian monster bomb. Trinity and Beyond The Atomic Bomb Movie is a 1995 American Documentary film directed by Peter Kuran [2] The movie incorrectly states that the Tsar Bomba project broke the moratorium on nuclear tests. Soviets restarted their tests two months before Tsar Bomba, and there was no de-jure moratorium in place at the time (the U. S. had already announced that it considered itself free to resume testing after further notice). [3]

External links

• Tsar Bomba at Carey Sublette's NuclearWeaponArchive.org
• Video of the Tsar Bomba delivery, blast and cloud at Sonicbomb.com
• Short Documentary Video On The Tsar Bomba
• Google Maps