That is not a soft romantic glow from a beautiful sunset. That my friends is the radioactive glow from a nuclear weapon we fired into the sky decades ago because safety is for mothers and babies. Starfish Prime was a way for us to look god in the face and give him the finger. Now why exactly would we go around firing nuclear weapons into the sky?
“On July 9, 1962, at 09:00:09 Coordinated Universal Time the Starfish Prime test was successfully detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometers (250 mi). The coordinates of the detonation were 16 degrees, 28 minutes North latitude, 169 degrees, 38 minutes West longitude. The actual weapon yield was very close to the design yield, which has been described by various sources at different values in the range of 1.4 to 1.45 megatons.”
Now why was this really done? I'm still not sure. I know I never learned about this in school though. And probably for good reason. It was bad enough that every February I had to be shown pictures and watch films about how Black people got their shit jacked up during slavery. I'm sure that learning that our own government was exploding nuclear weapons above the sea would have pushed my crazy little ass over the edge. My brain is equipped for a certain amount of lunacy. This is outside of my range of comprehension.
"Starfish Prime caused an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which was far larger than expected, so much larger that it drove much of the instrumentation off scale, causing great difficulty in getting accurate measurements. The Starfish Prime electromagnetic pulse also made those effects known to the public by causing electrical damage in Hawaii, about 1,445 kilometers (898 mi) away from the detonation point, knocking out about 300 streetlights, setting off numerous burglar alarms and damaging a telephone company microwave link. The EMP damage to the microwave link shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian islands."
Larger than expected. I wonder how big a pulse they thought they'd get. What is the acceptable amount of fucked up? And don't think that because you haven't heard of this that the only damage occurred on that poor damned island. You have to give it to our government for being able to keep things on the down low when they really need to. Like bathing the public in death rays.
"While some of the energetic beta particles followed the Earth's magnetic field and illuminated the sky, other high-energy electrons became trapped and formed radiation belts around the earth. There was much uncertainty and debate about the composition, magnitude and potential adverse effects from this trapped radiation after the detonation. The weaponeers became quite worried when three satellites in low earth orbit were disabled. These man-made radiation belts eventually crippled one-third of all satellites in low earth orbit."
I think I'm gonna stop leaving the house.
