In 1962 , the US government exploded a nuclear dud over Honolulu . This had a number of unexpected personal effects , including the seven - minute - prospicient display of an artificial morning borealis you see above .
After the Van Allen belt was find in the other sixties — the belt of free particles hold in place above the Earth by the Earth ’s magnetic field — scientist mulled over the existence of this new phenomenon and thought , “ Eh . Let ’s shoot a nuclear warhead at it . ” The nuclear exam was called Starfish Prime , and it was set off about 250 nautical mile above the Pacific ocean . The explosions were clearly visible from Honolulu ; amazingly , the house physician were by - and - tumid okay with this , even going so far as to organise viewing parties .
One unexpected answer of the turkey was thetaking out of a communication satellite launched soon afterwards . More spectacularly , at least for those regard the blast , was a seven - minute - retentive faint show . Particles release from the bomb calorimeter struck atmospherical molecules , hot up them up and alight the sky . It must have been pretty to see , but I ’m glad I was n’t there for it .
https://gizmodo.com/remembering-the-day-when-the-us-nuked-its-own-communica-5925469
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