4/
The goal was to see if this "plasma shield" could:
Blind Soviet Radar: Making it impossible for them to track incoming missiles.
Fry Enemy Electronics: The radiation belt could potentially "cook" the guidance systems of incoming Soviet warheads.
The project was so secret that the public didn't find out about it until the New York Times broke the story a year later in 1959.
3/
The experiment was based on a theory by a Greek physicist named Nicholas Christofilos. He predicted that a nuclear explosion in space would create an artificial Van Allen radiation belt.
He was right. The explosions created a shell of high-energy electrons that wrapped around the entire planet for several weeks.
2/
The Actual Stats:
The Weapons: They launched three modified X-17A missiles, each carrying a 1.7-kiloton W-25 nuclear warhead.
The Altitudes: These weren't just "high altitude" shots; they were true space shots. The detonations occurred at:
Argus I: 100 miles (approx. 161 km)
Argus II: 182 miles (approx. 293 km)
Argus III: 466 miles (approx. 750 km)—deep into the exosphere.
In August and September of 1958, the United States secretly sent a fleet of nine ships (Task Force 88) into the South Atlantic. Their mission was to launch nuclear missiles into space to see what would happen to the Earth's atmosphere.
#NuclearTests
#OperationArgus
#US
#history
1/
In ihrem Beitrag „Atomwaffen stehen nicht alleine“ in W&F 1/2026 beschreibt Janina Dannenberg die Auswirkungen der zahllosen nuklearen Bomben»tests« auf die Inselwelt #Ozeaniens. Sie problematisiert #kolonialistische Verhaltensmuster, die Vertreibung und Vergiftung der Natur und der einheimischen Bevölkerung.
Hier den ganzen Beitrag lesen: https://wissenschaft-und-frieden.de/artikel/atomwaffen-stehen-nicht-alleine/
#Ecocide #NuclearTests #Rarotonga #NuclearFree
Kunst: Chris Parkinson/chrsprknsn
グローバル被爆者：核時代の隠された物語 [日本語吹替版]
この短編動画では、拡大し続ける核時代の歴史、そして日本での出来事を超え、世界中の何百万もの人々に影響を与えた「隠された物語」を探ります。核実験、核兵器製造、そして事故の時代がいかにして広大なネットワーク、すなわち放射性降下物によって人生を永遠に変えられた人々——「グローバル・ヒバクシャ」——を生み出したのかを検証します。
#Japanese
#YouTube
#日本語
#hibakusha
#Jacobs
#NuclearTests
#NuclearAccidents
#fallout
#グローバルヒバクシャ
#核実験
#放射性降下物
#ダウンワインダー
#オスケメン
#歴史
#ドキュメンタリー
#GlobalHibakusha
See also following interactive world map of nuclear explosions:
https://explorenuclear.com/maps/world-map-of-nuclear-explosions/
A Time Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto
Using the tragic 1954 Castle Bravo test as a turning point, we analyze how radioactive fallout was tracked in secret while the victims were told the 'snow' falling on them was harmless. It is time to move past the cinematic myths of the mushroom cloud and confront the 'nuclear mundane': the quiet, ongoing reality of a world where the isotopes of the Cold War are still part of our environment and our biology.
Today, we go on a deep dive into a globally dispersed, slow-motion nuclear war. By unpacking a massive archive of declassified memos and epidemiological research, we challenge the 'nuclear sublime'—the Hollywood myth of the mushroom cloud—and confront the 'nuclear mundane': the everyday physical reality of millions of people who became the Global Hibakusha.
earthling
Wissenschaft und Frieden