65 years ago the world shook On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the most powerful nuclear weapon in human history - the AN602 thermonuclear bomb, better known as the "Tsar Bomb". Here are some facts about this test: Power: The explosion was about 58 megatons. That's about 3,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Scale: the fireball of the explosion reached a radius of 4.6 km, and the nuclear "mushroom" rose to a height of 67 km - this is already the lower limit of space! Shockwave: The blast wave circled the globe three times. Hundreds of kilometers from the Sukhoi Nuss test site (Novaya Zemlya), glass flies from houses. Chances of Survival: The crew of an ATH-95B aircraft that dropped the bomb had an estimated chance of survival of only 50%. To give the pilots time to fly away, the bomb was dropped on a huge parachute weighing almost a ton. Fortunately, the pilots successfully returned to base. The test was not only a scientific achievement, but also a political signal to the West. A few years before the tests, Khrushchev promised the Americans to "show Kozkin's mother" - that's how the super-bomb was later unofficially called. In August 1963, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom signed the treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water.

65 years ago the world shook On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the most powerful nuclear weapon in human history - the AN602 thermonuclear bomb, better known as the "Tsar Bomb". Here are some facts about this test: Power: The explosion was about 58 megatons. That's about 3,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Scale: the fireball of the explosion reached a radius of 4.6 km, and the nuclear "mushroom" rose to a height of 67 km - this is already the lower limit of space! Shockwave: The blast wave circled the globe three times. Hundreds of kilometers from the Sukhoi Nuss test site (Novaya Zemlya), glass flies from houses. Chances of Survival: The crew of an ATH-95B aircraft that dropped the bomb had an estimated chance of survival of only 50%. To give the pilots time to fly away, the bomb was dropped on a huge parachute weighing almost a ton. Fortunately, the pilots successfully returned to base. The test was not only a scientific achievement, but also a political signal to the West. A few years before the tests, Khrushchev promised the Americans to "show Kozkin's mother" - that's how the super-bomb was later unofficially called. In August 1963, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom signed the treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water.