Tsar Bomba - King of the Bombs Nuclear weapon

Above: Tsar Bomba replica sitting in russian museum in Sarov.

• Tsar Bomba was the nickname of the AN602 hydrogen bomb
• It is the most powerful and destructive nuclear weapon ever detonated
• Developed by the Soviet Union
• Detonated as a test on October 30 1961 in Novaya Zemlya archipelago which is a large island in the Arctic Ocean

Above: Digitally enhanced picture of Tsar Bomba explosion and mushroom cloud

• Teller–Ulam design was the blueprint for this and most Nuclear bombs
• Has a power yield of 50 megatons which is 1400 times the combined power of both Nuclear weapons used in World war 2. The Fat Man and Little Boy which combined yielded only 39 kilotons
• Julii Borisovich Khariton Headed the design team that created the Tsar Bomba
• After this bomb was detonated some of the design team members began speaking out against the use of nuclear weapons

Above: Fire ball created by the blast of the Tsar Bomba. The initial shock wave kept the massive ball floating in the air before it was engulfed in smoke and ash

Above: Tu-95 V release plane that dropped the Tsar Bomba

• The Tsar Bomba was dropped from a modified Tu-95 V release plane flown by major Andrei Durnovtsev
• A Tu-16 observer plane flew behind The Tu-95 taking air samples and documenting the entire process
• Both aircrafts were coated with a special reflective paint thought to minimize damage from the heat created from the detonation
• The Bomb was attached to a massive 800 kilogram parachute that created enough drag to slow the fall and allow the planes to clear the blast zone

Above: Destruction zone of the Tsar Bomba as an example – over a map of Paris: red circle is total destruction - radius 35 kilometres or 22 miles, yellow circle is fireball radius 3.5 or kilometres 2.2 miles

Above: Fire ball radius comparison chart of different bombs. The W59 Minuteman 1, the W88 Peacekeeper, the Fat man Nagasaki nuclear bombing, Castle Bravo thermonuclear test bomb and the largest fireball radius was the Tsar Bomba.

Above: Comparison of Nuclear bomb mushroom cloud height

The first video below is footage from russian archives that documented the entire operation.

The second video below is of Dwight D. Eisenhower the United States President at the time commenting on what the deduced from the russians detonating this massive Nuclear bomb against there will.

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