Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizens for the clue delivery of the holy Buddha! This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

Robert Oppenheimer (photo source: Ed Westcott) "Father of the atomic bomb" Robert Oppenheimer once sighed: "I am now death, the destroyer of the world." Many scientists are also worried that mankind will build a nuclear bomb that can destroy the whole world. So, can one nuclear bomb destroy the whole world? Can we build a nuclear bomb like this?

/ tr. by Stephen Kelly (Stephen Kelly)

Translation | Li Shijie

Editor | Chen Qiang

The original article is published in Science focus 2023.09.

The new film Oppenheimer, directed by famous Hollywood director Christopher Nolan, mainly tells the story of Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist and father of the atomic bomb, involved in the development of man's first atomic bomb.

In the film, Leslie Groves, a US military engineer who is in charge of the Manhattan project, the project to develop man's first atomic bomb, is worried about the invention, which could destroy the world. However, before conducting the first nuclear test in human history, Oppenheimer said that the possibility of an atomic bomb destroying all life on Earth was close to zero. Groves asked him, "almost zero? it had better be equal to zero!"

In reality, American physicist Edward Teller, one of the core members of the Manhattan project, shares the same concern. Steven Bigarsky (Steven Biegalski), head of the Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said Taylor was worried that the heat released by the nuclear explosion "would lead to nuclear fusion of hydrogen in the atmosphere, trigger a catastrophic chain reaction, and continue to spread around the world to destroy the entire planet." In other words, Taylor is worried that a nuclear explosion will turn the whole earth to ashes. "obviously, that didn't happen. This is because the density of hydrogen atoms in the air is low and there is not enough energy to collide together, so they do not have nuclear fusion." Beagalski explained.

However, it also makes people wonder: how destructive can nuclear weapons be? Is it possible that one nuclear bomb can destroy the whole world?

What is the most powerful nuclear bomb that man has ever made? "during World War II, the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were equivalent to 15000 tons and 20,000 tons of TNT explosives, respectively," said Tara Drozdenko, director of the global security program at the Union of concerned scientists. "Today, most US nuclear weapons are 15 to 20 times more powerful than atomic bombs at that time."

The Hiroshima atomic bomb leveled an urban area of about 13 square kilometers, destroying 63% of local buildings and killing at least 70,000 people. But this is not the most powerful nuclear bomb. The most powerful nuclear bomb ever made was the czar bomb (Tsar Bomba) tested by the Soviet Union in 1961, which was as powerful as 50 million tons of TNT explosives. When the Tsar bomb was tested, all houses in the village of Sevni, 55km from the Mitushika Bay test site in Sindi Island, were destroyed. If such a bomb were dropped in Manchester, England, the residents of Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield would all suffer third-degree burns. To make matters worse, the Tsar bomb was originally designed to be as powerful as 100 million tons of TNT explosives, but the researchers halved its power in order to reduce the radiation hazard.

However, the powerful "czar bomb" also has an Achilles heel. Droztenko said: "this kind of bomb actually has no actual combat effect because of the lack of available delivery systems."

The Tsar bomb was so large that the Soviet Union could not install it on the missile. Even if dropped by aircraft, there are huge risks. "the nuclear bomb is as powerful as 50 million tons of TNT explosives, and it was impossible to predict at the time whether the plane carrying the czar bomb could escape before the explosion," Mr. de Roztenko said. "if you can make 50 smaller weapons with the same total power, why build such a big bomb?"

Is there an upper limit on the power of a single nuclear bomb? Scientists generally believe that today's nuclear weapons can be far more powerful than "czar bombs." Some scientists also predict that in the future, these nuclear weapons can be used to bombard asteroids, make them deviate from their orbit and prevent them from hitting the earth. However, there is an upper limit to the power of a single nuclear bomb. "there are two reasons: first, the materials used to make nuclear bombs are not inexhaustible; second, when the nuclear reaction develops to a certain stage, the nuclear bomb will blow itself to pieces, so the nuclear reaction cannot continue." Bijarski explained.

As for whether the most powerful nuclear weapons in theory can destroy the world, Bejarsky says it is difficult to predict. "all I know is that I hope it never happens," he said. "

Conclusion there is no final conclusion as to whether one nuclear bomb can destroy the whole earth. But from a realistic point of view, it is unlikely that we can build a nuclear bomb with such power.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.