This is a pretty amazing photo from Wikimedia (via) of a Peacekeeper Missile test. The photo captures re-entry of a single missiles 8 individual warheads. In a battle scenario, the missile could carry 10 nuclear warheads with an explosive yield of up to 300 kilotons each, effectively making this a 3000 kiloton "bomb"... more then 200x the yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.



Amazing.

 

That picture is awesome. The potential/implication of that picture is very scary.

 

Nice pic...! The beauty and yet the impending doom...what a combination.

 

you can almost feel the contrast between the cool ocean breeze and the heat of the blast

 

Well, I suppose you could liken it to seeing a star collapse on itself...before you're obliterated into smithereens.

 

I think that photo made the cover of Time or one other major news magazine when they announced the first testing of the Peacekeeper missiles.

 

That's an amazing photo. "Peacekeeper." "World Ender" is more like it

 

There wont be "Peace" to keep after using that thing....

 

Keep peace cause no one will fuck with us missile?

 

whoa

 

Lets just use it now to start world peace

 

I dont get the photo...what are the rays?

 

.

 

yes..i can read, thank you. What does that mean?

 

The missle has 8 warheads - meaning the missle releases each warhead individually and they each hit 8 different places. What you are seeing are the paths of all 8 warheads coming though the clouds.

 

This is a picture of warheads being fitted to a missile.

They are released outside the atmosphere at thousands of MPH.

They strike the earth at 4000MPH.

The heat-up and glow from the speed of re-entry, the "rays" you see are the warheads. The cameras shutter was open long enough (not long at all) to capture their path as a glow.

Much like when you take a picture of a street at night with a slow shutter speed and instead of seeing cars you just see streaks from their headlights.

 

^^ I know it's probably a protective cap of some sort, but looking at that image I can't help but think some guy just put down his roll of shop rags on the warhead when the quittin' time whistle blew.

 

 

i wouldn't doubt it

 

"introducing the world's first 300-kiloton paper towel holder"

 

I wonder what would happen if they shot the north pole with one of those?







200x hiroshima....what kind of yield is that? In terms of area?


Do you think the other side of the world would feel it? (I would imagine so)

 

Little Boy had a yield of 13-16 kilotons.

I believe the biggest bomb ever detonated was a hydrogen bomb made by the Russians with a 50 Megaton, 50000 Kiloton, yield.

Mike

 

The Tsar Bomba

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_bomb

 

While the Peacekeeper system certainly doesn't deliver the largest payload of any "single" weapon. The idea of an array of lower yield impacts like those from the ten 300 kiloton Peacekeeper MIRV's would devistate a far larger area than, for instance, the Soviet Tsar Bomba.

Not to mention, the Tsar Bomba was not really useable as a weapon. Merely a political tool used to compare penis size.

 

DAMN....Wiki said the shock waves went around the earth at least 3 times...

 

Now consider the Chicxulub impact that wiped out the dinosaurs:

The current estimated equivant: approximately 100 teratons

Tsar Bomba = 1/20 of one gigaton

Solar System > any nuke

 

o wow thats intense, i was unclear on the whole re-entry thing.