Written by Samriddhi Thakur, a grade 7 student.

What do you think was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever made?
It was a bomb named the Tsar Bomb.

Here’s all about it

About the Tsar Bomb

The Tsar Bomb, Also known as ‘the king of bombs’ in Russia has made its place as the world’s most powerful, strong bomb ever made. It is said to be 3,800 times the strength of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S during world war II.

When and who built the Tsar Bomb?

The bomb was built in 1961 by a group of Soviet physicists that included Andrei Sakharov   (Soviet nuclear physicist, activist for disarmament, peace, and human rights), At the time of the Cold War between the U.S.S.R. and the United States.

Where was the bomb launched?

 It was launched on Novaya Zemlya Island in the Russian Arctic Sea on October 30, 1961. 

Why was the Tsar bomb made?

The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was very keen to show off the U.S.S.R.’s military his power, so he ordered the creation of the most powerful bomb ever made.

Is the bomb still present?

No, The remaining bomb casings are located at the Russian Atomic Weapon Museum in Sarov and the Museum of Nuclear Weapons, so there is no need to worry.

Does any other country have the Tsar Bomb?

No, as now no other country has this bomb.

Ironically, the bomb could have been much more powerful. It was designed to have an explosive yield of up to 100 megatons, but it was detonated at 50 megatons, wrote” Alex Wellerstein,” director of the Science and Technology Studies program at the Stevens Institute of Technology

Headline image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/%D0%A6%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C-%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B1%D0%B0.jpg

Liosha666, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons