
The resulting damage was equally massive. It exploded about 2.5 miles (4 km) above the ground, producing a mushroom cloud more than 37 miles (60 km) high the flash of the detonation was seen some 620 miles (1,000 km) away. At approximately 11:32 am Moscow time, Tsar Bomba was dropped over the Mityushikha Bay test site on the deserted island of Novaya Zemlya. The aircraft, piloted by Andrey Durnovtsev, took off from Kola Peninsula on October 30, 1961. Although officially known as RDS-220, it acquired numerous nicknames, most notably Tsar Bomba in the West.Ī Tu-95V bomber was modified to carry the weapon, which was equipped with a special parachute that would slow its fall, allowing the plane to fly a safe distance from the blast. The resulting weapon weighed 27 tons, with a length of some 26 feet (8 metres) and a diameter of about 7 feet (2 metres).

In addition, the fusion process of the Soviet device was altered, dramatically lessening the fallout. bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. Thus, it was modified to yield 50 megatons, which was estimated to be about 3,800 times the strength of the U.S. It had a 100-megaton capacity, though the resulting fallout from such a blast was considered too dangerous for a test situation. Meant to be a show of Soviet strength, the three-stage bomb was unparalleled in power. and the United States had grown increasingly tense. At the time the Cold War between the U.S.S.R. The bomb was built in 1961 by a group of Soviet physicists that notably included Andrey Sakharov. The largest nuclear weapon ever set off, it produced the most powerful human-made explosion ever recorded. Tsar Bomba, (Russian: “King of Bombs”), byname of RDS-220, also called Big Ivan, Soviet thermonuclear bomb that was detonated in a test over Novaya Zemlya island in the Arctic Ocean on October 30, 1961. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
TSAR BOMBA FOOTAGE HOW TO

Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Only one bomb of this type was ever built and it was tested on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, at Sukhoy Nos.

This attempt was successful, as it was one of the cleanest (relative to its yield) nuclear bombs ever detonated. The famous Russian idiom, which has been problematic for translators, equates roughly with the English “We’ll show you!” Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT (420 PJ), but the yield was reduced to 57 megatons to reduce nuclear fallout (and also to prevent the blast from destroying the drop aircraft).

It was also referred to as Kuz'kina Mat', potentially referring to Nikita Khrushchev's promise to show the United States a "Kuz'kina Mat'" at the 1960 United Nations General Assembly. Its Octotest remains the most powerful artificial explosion in human history. Tsar Bomba is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. My apologies for the dark part at the beginning, the video comes in around the 10 second mark.
