10,000 megaton superbomb project E. Teller or why the scientist wanted to "set fire" the sky

The American nuclear bomb (Fat Man) dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki had a yield of some 20 kilotons. In the Soviet Union, the so-called "Tsar Bomba" was created with a capacity equivalent to 50 megatons in TNT equivalent - already 2500 times more powerful than the American Fat Man.

But Edward Teller, known as the "father of the thermonuclear bomb," had plans to create a truly superbomb that would be at least 200 times more powerful than the Soviet Tsar Bomb.

The thermonuclear race and the crazy projects of scientists

So in the 1960s, in the midst of the Cold War, the race for more and more powerful thermonuclear charges reached its climax. So in the USA the B-41 bomb with a capacity of 25 megatons was created, and in the USSR the AN602 with a capacity of 100 megatons was developed. But to our happiness, they (bombs) have not been tested.

But even before this period, E. Teller hatched plans to create charges, the power of which was simply incredible and could reach

10,000 megatons in TNT equivalent.

Developed earlier by E. Teller, together with S. Ulam, the scheme of thermonuclear ammunition in pure theory allowed for an almost infinite increase in charge power. And, therefore, creating a bomb of 10,000 megatons was more than realistic.

Why do you need such power at all

Previous studies have shown that increasing the charge of a thermonuclear bomb did not lead to a commensurate increase in destructive force. And the most effective charges were considered to be from 500 to 1000 kilotons.

So why were projects to create such powerful thermonuclear charges seriously considered at that time?

And the thing is that such mega-bombs, in principle, were not planned to be used as classic thermonuclear charges and dropped over the enemy's territory. They were supposed to be blown up in near-earth orbits at an altitude of about 150 km from the Earth's surface.

And the main effect was that from such a colossal amount of energy, which overnight fell on the atmosphere so it warmed up that the air turned into a high-temperature plasma. And the sky literally burst into flames.

As a result of such an action, the entire territory covered with a plasma blanket was burned out, destroying absolutely everything that was on the surface at that moment. Moreover, such an explosion was clean from the side of nuclear pollution.

Of course, such a "charge" would be incredibly heavy and weighed about 2000 tons, and in order to it was proposed to deliver into orbit a project of super-powerful chemical rockets or atomic-impulse rockets of the project "Orion".

In peacetime, such megabombs would be located in high orbits, and in the event of a conflict, they would descend into low Earth orbits and be activated.

And according to Teller's idea, his orbital thermonuclear shells, dangling in orbits, would be absolute peacekeepers, which completely excluded the very possibility of an attack. After all, the detonation of such a mega-bomb completely cleared the territory.

Fortunately, Teller's idea remained only in plans and on a few drawings.

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