Two anniversaries
Spam celebrates its 75th anniversary this month -- from the
Christian Science Monitor:
Happy Birthday, Spam! America's favorite canned meat turns 75
Spam, the legendary canned meat whose very name invokes delight in some and queasiness in many more, turns 75 this month. The product�s parent company, Hormel Foods Corp., is celebrating with what it calls a �Spamtastic� birthday bash at the Spam manufacturing plant in Austin, Minn., complete with a headlining performance by the Temptations.
The other celebration is the 50th anniversary of the Starfish Prime atomic bomb test.
From Discover Magazine's
Bad Astronomy page:
The 50th anniversary of Starfish Prime: the nuke that shook the world
On July 9, 1962 � 50 years ago today � the United States detonated a nuclear weapon high above the Pacific Ocean. Designated Starfish Prime, it was part of a dangerous series of high-altitude nuclear bomb tests at the height of the Cold War. Its immediate effects were felt for thousands of kilometers, but it would also have a far-reaching aftermath that still touches us today.
In 1958, the Soviet Union called for a ban on atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons, and went so far as to unilaterally stop such testing. Under external political pressure, the US acquiesced. However, in late 1961 political pressures internal to the USSR forced Khrushchev to break the moratorium, and the Soviets began testing once again. So, again under pressure, the US responded with tests of their own.
It was a scary time to live in.
The US, worried that a Soviet nuclear bomb detonated in space could damage or destroy US intercontinental missiles, set up a series of high-altitude weapons tests called Project Fishbowl (itself part of the larger Operation Dominic) to find out for themselves what happens when nuclear weapons are detonated in space. High-altitude tests had been done before, but they were hastily set up and the results inconclusive. Fishbowl was created to take a more rigorous scientific approach.
On July 9, 1962, the US launched a Thor missile from Johnston island, an atoll about 1500 kilometers (900 miles) southwest of Hawaii. The missile arced up to a height of over 1100 km (660 miles), then came back down. At the preprogrammed height of 400 km (240 miles), just seconds after 09:00 UTC, the 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead detonated.
And all hell broke loose.
And just what happened?
But the effects were far more than a simple light show. When the bomb detonated, those electrons underwent incredible acceleration. When that happens they create a brief but extremely powerful magnetic field. This is called an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. The strength of the pulse was so huge that it affected the flow of electricity on the Earth hundreds of kilometers away! In Hawaii it blew out hundreds of streetlights, and caused widespread telephone outages. Other effects included electrical surges on airplanes and radio blackouts.
The EMP had been predicted by scientists, but the Starfish Prime pulse was far larger than expected. And there was another effect that hadn�t been predicted accurately. Many of the electrons from the blast didn�t fall down into the Earth�s atmosphere, but instead lingered in space for months, trapped by Earth�s magnetic field, creating an artificial radiation belt high above our planet�s surface.
When a high-speed electron hits a satellite, it can generate a sort-of miniature EMP. The details are complex, but the net effect is that these electrons can zap satellites and damage their electronics. The pulse of electrons from the Starfish Prime detonation damaged at least six satellites (including one Soviet bird), all of which eventually failed due to the blast. Other satellite failures at the time may be linked to the explosion as well.
Oopsie! Talk about game-changer. And we sit back and let Iran and NorK develop nuclear weapons? Their missles do not have to reach from one continent to another, they just have to reach from a nearby ship and travel a couple hundred miles straight up over the Eastern Seaboard...
Posted by DaveH at July 10, 2012 11:27 AM