In the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space

Re:In the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb i... by computerex on Friday June 30, 2017 @05:00PM (#14673584)

> ...discounting nuclear radiation effects, of course

https://history.nasa.gov/conghand/nuclear.htm

> Third, in the absence of the atmosphere, nuclear radiation will suffer no physical attenuation and the only degradation in intensity will arise from reduction with distance. As a result the range of significant dosages will be many times greater than is the case at sea level. With such weapons the lethal radii (from nuclear radiation) in space may be of the order of hundreds of miles.

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Re:In the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb i... by jloughry on Saturday July 01, 2017 @12:45AM (#14675429)

I didn't know that. Thanks!

Also:

    Second, thermal radiation, as usually defined, also disappears.
    There is no longer any air for the blast wave to heat and much
    higher frequency radiation is emitted from the weapon itself.

So more of the energy of the bomb remains in the x-ray or gamma portion of the spectrum---penetrating radiation, hard to shield against---in addition to the longer effective range.

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