A Look Back At Bombing the Van Allen Belts 237
An anonymous reader points out a recent story at NPR describing one of the greatest lightshows in history — a US hydrogen bomb test 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean in 1962. The mission came about after James Van Allen confirmed the existence of radiation belts around the earth that now bear his name. As it turns out, the same day Van Allen announced his findings at a press conference, he "agreed with the military to get involved with a project to set off atomic bombs in the magnetosphere to see if they could disrupt it." According to NPR, "The plan was to send rockets hundreds of miles up, higher than the Earth's atmosphere, and then detonate nuclear weapons to see: a) If a bomb's radiation would make it harder to see what was up there (like incoming Russian missiles!); b) If an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby; c) If the Van Allen belts would move a blast down the bands to an earthly target (Moscow! for example); and — most peculiar — d) if a man-made explosion might 'alter' the natural shape of the belts." The article is accompanied by a podcast and a video with recently declassified views of the test. They also explain how the different colors of light in the sky were produced.
And now I know (Score:5, Funny)
At least it will be a very pretty ending when the nuclear war begins.
These images look very similar to what I had seen last night. The colors bouncing off of the clouds lit up the sky quite well. In fact, if no one replies in the next few minutes I can probably assume that was the end of humanity.
In the end I suppose it's time to do what I always wanted to do. You know, the things we won't do because of societies "rules." However, now that society no longer exists I can finally bathe myself in chocolate sauce, whip cream, nuts and ride my bike around town screaming who has a banana!
Even being the end of the world it's shaping up to be a great day.
Another proposal .... (Score:4, Funny)
was to nuke rainbows. A high ranking general was quoted as saying the military applications of rainbows and rainbow based technologies can't be ignored.
Re:Hypocrasy (Score:5, Funny)
No such treaty and you have it backwards. There are statements by various countries (US included, also China) that they won't use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries.
"The United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states that are party to the Non Proliferation Treaty and in compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations"
Re:I can't see the tags... (Score:3, Funny)
Note to the ladies out there: penises are an exception to this rule.
Re:I can't see the tags... (Score:5, Funny)
> Why would you expect people back in the dawning days of the nuclear age to think any differently?
They weren't born with as much brain-damage from excessive radiation exposure.
Re:I can't see the tags... (Score:5, Funny)
Good thing scientists would never do anything that stupid today *cough*miniature blackholes*cough*...
Re:And now I know (Score:1, Funny)
I can finally bathe myself in chocolate sauce, whip cream, nuts and ride my bike around town screaming who has a banana!
Please Gods, let you be female.
Re:And now I know (Score:3, Funny)
I can finally bathe myself in chocolate sauce, whip cream, nuts and ride my bike around town screaming who has a banana!
Someone [images-amazon.com] beat you to it.
Japan (Score:3, Funny)
Some countries like Japan certainly have the wealth and the technology base to build them, but don't for very deliberate political reasons
Gojira!!