Starfish
Prime was the code name of one of the 36 nuclear
tests involved in operation Dominic. During this operation, the United
States
was testing all sorts of nuclear weapons in different situations and
seeing the
effects of them.
This particular test, Starfish Prime, was one in which a 1.44 megaton
thermonuclear warhead was set off 400km above Earth centered over the
Johnston
Atoll (Wisegeek). The picture to the right depicts the man-made aurora
created
from the blast as viewed from nearby Hawaii that lasted for seven
minutes. Light
posts, garage doors, and other sporadic electronic device malfunctions
occurred
as well as fried electronics in several satellites due to the EMP pulse
from
the explosion at a high altitude.
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At the time, there were no IPods, laptops, and cell phones readily available, so the effects on these devices are still unknown. It is suspected that they would all be destroyed if something like Starfish Prime were to happen again over an area laden with electronic devices containing circuit boards or little wires. |
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