Can cobalt bombs really destroy all mankind? What is a cobalt bomb?

Conclusion: In fact, to put it bluntly, this thing doesn't exist in reality and it can't be made. Even if it is made, it cannot destroy the earth. Therefore, people don't need to panic, don't need to worry about one being detonated, and all mankind will perish. This is pure illusion. Let's talk about this thing that only exists in fantasy, cobalt bomb!

What is a cobalt bomb?

1950, physicist Leo szilard imagined: "The neutron bomb was wrapped in a layer of cobalt 59 and detonated in the stratosphere. Neutrons released by neutron bombs hit cobalt 59 and became cobalt 60, which spread all over the stratosphere of the earth's atmosphere. The radiation produced by cobalt 60 decay will destroy biological DNA, and all life on earth will perish in a short time. Most importantly, the radioactive source produced by cobalt bombs is more difficult to clean than the radiation of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. It can be said that this is a hateful "smelly bomb".

Can releasing cobalt bombs destroy all mankind?

If the cobalt bomb explodes in the atmosphere, the natural and biological systems of the earth will be irretrievably destroyed, human beings will perish in a short time, 98% of the creatures on the earth will be wiped out, and the earth will become as desolate and silent as Mars and the moon.

Although the cobalt bomb is very powerful, there are many problems in this idea, and it is hard to say whether it can be realized. Because a large part of the cobalt 59 on the surface will be blown away when the bullet explodes, it is impossible for all the cobalt 59 to become cobalt 60, so the amount of cobalt 60 is less, and the power of formation is naturally much smaller. I want to destroy all mankind, just kidding!

There are also many countries with nuclear weapons in the world today. Everyone is calling for the reduction of nuclear weapons and urging countries with nuclear weapons to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are an important guarantee of a country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the country's heavy weapon will achieve its mission.

Generally speaking, peace and development are the themes of the times. No matter which country wants to engage in cobalt bombs, the earth is our home. We should protect and cherish it and create a better tomorrow.

The so-called cobalt bomb is a powerful "dirty bomb" in the notorious theory, also known as the doomsday weapon. People often say that atomic bombs can destroy mankind. This statement may not be exaggerated, but it is not easy to implement it. But if this so-called dirty bomb cobalt really comes out, it will really be the end, and the devil's "end" will always hang on the head of all mankind, because only one can destroy mankind!

If the atomic bomb destroys mankind, it needs thousands of fixed-point clearance. After all, it is sometimes delayed and it is possible to save it. Now only one cobalt bomb will end human history. As long as any war maniac or terrorist gets such a cobalt bomb in his hand, or someone who has the right to keep this ultimate weapon is unlucky and wants to drag everyone to death, it will be over as soon as he throws it away.

Maybe some friends will say that this is probably an alarmist. No, unfortunately, it's true. What is even more frightening is that this dirty bomb does not kill people, but slowly tortures them to death, leaving no one behind. It is really barren to uproot them.

Of course, even if this dirty bomb is made, it will not easily end mankind, because it is possible to kill all mankind by detonating it at an altitude of tens of kilometers. This kind of high-tech means can't be done by one person. But one person can destroy mankind, which is terrible.

It seems that the principle of making this dirty bomb is not difficult, just replace the outer layer of uranium 238 of the existing three-phase bomb with cobalt. What three-phase bomb? This is about the development of nuclear bombs. Einstein discovered the mass-energy equation E = MC 2, which revealed the essence of the relationship among mass, energy and light speed for mankind, created a golden key to open the treasure chest of mass-energy conversion for mankind, and made people realize that our utilization of energy is still in a pitiful waste stage.

In the past, people used coal, and the conversion rate of mass and energy reached 0.00000035%. People began to explore ways to maximize energy efficiency and discovered the mysteries of nuclear fission and fusion. Nuclear fission can increase the conversion rate of mass and energy to 0. 13%, which is more than 370,000 times of the utilization rate of old coal. The mass-energy conversion rate of nuclear fusion is 0.7%, which is more than five times that of nuclear fission.

But unfortunately, human beings are constantly fighting. These discoveries and technologies were first used in the nuclear deterrence of war, and then the nuclear bomb, an uncontrollable disposable nuclear energy release weapon, was created. The earliest nuclear bomb invented by mankind was the atomic bomb, which was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This kind of nuclear bomb produces lethality through the fission of heavy element uranium 235 (U) or plutonium 239 (Pu). The main lethality includes photothermal radiation, shock wave, nuclear radiation and radioactive pollution. This original atomic bomb has a small explosive equivalent, with 65,438+03,000 tons and 20,000 tons falling on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There is an upper limit to the amount of the atomic bomb, because nuclear fission has a critical value. For example, the critical value of the plutonium bomb chain reaction is 10.5 kg, which means that only 10.5 kg plutonium can be directly detonated. Therefore, these nuclear materials should be separated when charging, and cannot be put together. During initiation, the separated nuclear materials are squeezed together by conventional explosives at high speed, and a chain reaction of nuclear fission occurs.

This makes it difficult to design the charge and make the nuclear bomb very powerful. So far, the largest equivalent is the atomic bomb exploded by the American King in 1974, with an explosion equivalent of about 500,000 tons.

Later, human beings invented the hydrogen bomb, which released great power through the nuclear fusion of deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen, much more powerful than the atomic bomb. Inside this nuclear bomb is a small atomic bomb wrapped in deuterium and tritium. By detonating the atomic bomb inside, high temperature is generated, which leads to nuclear fusion and releases huge energy higher than nuclear fission. At present, the largest hydrogen bomb owned by mankind is the tsar bomba made in the former Soviet Union, also known as Ivan the Great, with an equivalent of 50 million tons.

196 1 years ago, the Soviet union tested and exploded a "big Ivan" hydrogen bomb. The mushroom cloud exploded as high as 70 kilometers, and the electromagnetic interference spread to the world three times. All aircraft, missiles, radar and communication facilities with a radius of 4,000 kilometers are affected to varying degrees. This is by far the most violent nuclear explosion. Since then, it has been too serious and powerful, and no country in the world has carried it out.

Nuclear fusion reaction is a very clean mass-energy conversion, and will not produce substances that pollute the environment. Because fission is only the fuse of nuclear fusion, there is little charge and little nuclear radiation pollution. Therefore, hydrogen bombs are relatively clean weapons.

However, hydrogen bombs were too big to be released and too small to be fatal. Later, neutron bombs and three-phase bombs were developed. Neutron bomb is a small hydrogen bomb. The released neutrons can kill people without damaging buildings. A three-phase bomb is a "dirty bomb". The so-called "dirty" means that in addition to the damage caused by the explosion itself, there is also serious environmental pollution.

This three-phase bomb is called "hydrogen-uranium bomb" because it adds a uranium shell outside the hydrogen bomb in order to expand its destructive power. The explosion process is fission ~ fusion ~ fission. When the hydrogen bomb explodes, the generated high-energy neutrons excite the shell of uranium 238 to have a chain reaction, releasing more energy, which not only increases the explosion damage range, but also leads to nuclear radioactive pollution. So it is called "dirty bomb".

Cobalt bomb is to replace the uranium shell of this "three-phase bomb" with cobalt 59 shell. When this nuclear bomb explodes, hydrogen fusion will release neutrons, and cobalt 59 will absorb a neutron and become cobalt 60. This cobalt 60 will emit a lot of gamma rays, which can directly interrupt the DNA of organisms and cause irreversible damage to all living things. Moreover, the half-life of this cobalt 60 is 5.27 years, during which this deadly ray will be emitted all the time.

Gamma-ray pollution of cobalt -60 is difficult to protect, and 3 grams of cobalt -60 needs half a ton of lead to shield it, so human beings are not immune to hiding underground.

Therefore, the cobalt bomb is a dirty bomb many times dirtier than the three-phase bomb. Some people estimate that if Europe explodes with this bomb, the whole of Europe will become a no-man's land; It has also been suggested that if such a bomb is released in the stratosphere (50~55 kilometers from the surface), its cobalt 60 will drift and spread to the whole stratosphere, polluting the whole world, enough to destroy all life.

Some experts also believe that if human beings can prepare in advance, there are still some countermeasures for the attack of this cobalt bomb, such as burying the contaminated topsoil with a special bulldozer. But this idea is just an ideal wish, and it is by no means easy to operate.

Therefore, in any case, the cobalt bomb can be regarded as the ultimate doomsday weapon to truly exterminate mankind.

Fortunately, at present, this kind of weapon only exists in theory, which was put forward by physicist Leo Szilard in 1950. So far, there is no information about the deployment of research in that country.

I hope that no madman will take all mankind hostage and die, leading to the ultimate destruction of human civilization in his own hands. In the struggle for survival and development in the future, troubled human beings should not only guard against natural and man-made disasters, but also guard against man-made disasters.

Space-time communication focuses on popular science topics of ordinary people, and everyone is welcome to discuss. Original copyright, plagiarism is shameful, infringement will be investigated, thank you for your cooperation. A: Cobalt [G incarnation] bomb is the most lethal weapon that mankind can manufacture at present. It only needs a bomb to detonate in the stratosphere, and it can make people all over the world perish, and there will be no grass on the ground for hundreds of years. This is the real doomsday weapon.

Cobalt bombs are not weapons of mass destruction like atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. Cobalt bombs are dirty bombs. After the explosion, the dirty bomb will throw radioactive particles to the ground, resulting in a high level of nuclear radiation in this area for a certain period of time.

Cobalt is the 27th element, and cobalt -59 is the only stable isotope of cobalt. Cobalt bomb wraps cobalt -59 in the outer layer of neutron bomb (neutron bomb is a third-generation nuclear weapon more advanced than hydrogen bomb). After the bullet exploded, a large number of neutrons were released and absorbed by cobalt -59, thus becoming cobalt -60.

Cobalt -60 is highly radioactive with a half-life of 5.27 years. Cobalt -60 is transformed into nickel -60 by beta decay (high energy electrons of 3 15 keV), and gamma rays of 1. 17 MeV and 1.33 MeV are released at the same time.

(1) beta rays (high-energy electrons) released by the decay of co-60 are close to the speed of light, and a large number of beta rays will burn the skin after irradiating the human body; Because electrons are charged, the penetration ability is small, and as long as the radioactive source does not enter the body, the harm will be much less;

(2)γ -ray is an electromagnetic wave with a short wavelength, which is several orders of magnitude shorter than X-ray used in our hospital. The energy of gamma rays is very high, and photons have no charge, so the penetration of gamma rays is very strong, causing considerable harm to human body;

When gamma rays pass through human body, they will ionize with cells and tissues. Ionization energy can destroy protein, nucleic acids, enzymes and other substances, and also interfere with biochemical reactions in the human body, and this destruction is irreversible.

Even if you hide in the basement, you can't avoid being irradiated by gamma rays. No animal or plant can live in a place polluted by cobalt bombs. This situation will last for hundreds of years before it recovers.

If it is made into a cobalt bomb and detonated in the stratosphere, cobalt -60 will be distributed to all parts of the world through atmospheric flow, thus causing the world to be polluted by cobalt -60. Therefore, the cobalt bomb is also called the doomsday weapon, and no nuclear country dares to manufacture it at present.