Plasma has properties that approximate electricity as well as thermal energy.

Following that line of reasoning I think we are seeing plasma radiating outward from the blast. The ropes/cables account for the convection/conduction of energy downwards, but the general blob-like effect has to do witht he expansion of the plasma ball and what forces resists that expansion like, pressure, magnetic induction, and energy diffusion....

just 2 of my own cents....

Most hypothetical nuclear detonations against an enemy would take place in the atmosphere. The explosion destroys everything on the ground, even if it explodes high in the air. The reason for mid-air detonations is the bonus of a very powerful EMP. A ground detonation will still produce EMP, but the shock wave of said EMP will not travel as far nor be as powerful. When it explodes in the air, the EMP will do much more damage over a broader region. At least, that's what I've been taught...

Looks like ones of those high altitude nuke's going off.

Good timing with the camera.

This shot comes from a sequence. In other shots one can see the sillhouettes of trees, giving some sense of the enormous size of that fireball. Now just imaginet that is ultimately from something no bigger than large spherical fruit.

It should also be pointed out that Edgerton's camerawork is responsible for many other more famous and iconic images. Two of the best known involves a bullet splitting a playing card into two, and an apple in the process of being destroyed by another bullet. His photographic analyses of various sports-related movements are especially awesome. One would never imagine how mis-shapened a baseball becomes when smacked by a baseball bat.

many of these are just simply amazing pictures, and at times will briefly flirt with giving a person perspective as to just how much power there is in the atom.

At the same time, I now really have a taste for some mushroom soup, or steak and mushrooms. I wonder why.

Originally posted by VonDoomen
I wonder what causes the "tunnels" within the explosion. You would assume that such a force like that would spread out evenly fairly evenly.

The downward directed "tunnels" are, to my understanding, caused by the vaporized support cables that keep the tower upright. What you see there is a few ionized clouds of steel.

The hollow spaces within the main cloud are probably caused by the uneven structure of the bomb, which makes some parts of the explosion wave front be slightly delayed. And of course the timing of the photograph was just right for them to be visible for a tiny fraction of a second.

I find these photos very interesting to a scientist's eye, very scary to the other eye that belongs to a mortal, if you don't mind the expression.



[edit on 19.11.2009 by Doc Lithium]

Interesting photos.

A few things disturb me, one is humans are so stupid that we make such devices and then use them on other humans. Personally I think the use of the weapon on Japan was the worst thing that could be done.

For a great insight into what it was really like for those people in Hiroshima, please read "Dark Rain" by Isuji Mibuse (spelling?) which is based on the diaries of immediate survivors. It is a close as anyone would want to get to being nuked.

All those atmospheric tests managed to irradiate every person on the planet. I still fail to see how any country had the right to do so knowing this would be the case.

It almost looks like theyare trans dimensional in design. Maybe when the first nuke tests happened we opened up a portal to toher dimesions??

Star and flag for you , sir!

Awesome website with a bunch of amazing photos.

Thanks.

It is an infrared (or some other spectral range) image using high speed film camera. Either special film or in the least lens filters such as an IR pass filter.