French physicists from the University of Paris-Cité have discovered previously unknown substances formed as a result of the first use of nuclear weapons – the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, by the US Army in August 1945. According to scientists, the compounds discovered are similar to elements found in space. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Earth and Planetary Science Letters (EPSL).
The elements found were called Hiroshima glasses. They were formed as a result of the vaporization of materials under the influence of a nuclear fireball.
By reconstructing the formation of these glasses, researchers were able to clarify the parameters of the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima. Calculations showed that the plasma sphere exploded above the city at an altitude of 580 meters. The heat wave touched down at 6287°C.
In the first 0.5-2 seconds after the explosion, urban materials (concrete, iron and aluminum alloys, glass and soil) evaporated and mixed with sand, water from the Ota River and the atmosphere, turning into glassy condensate.
According to scientists, something similar happened at the dawn of the solar system, when the first solid bodies appeared as a result of the evaporation of interstellar dust and gas from nebulae. Despite the different temperatures, pressures and times of atomic explosion processes and the formation of matter in space, the discovered similarities allowed researchers to better understand the history of the development of our star system.
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