The hydogen bomb, also known as “H bomb” of “fusion bomb”, is the most powerful explosive ever created by man. Its power can be 50 times bigger than an atomic bomb – which was launched on Japan – and its reaction is equivalent to the reaction that occurs inside stars, like the Sun.

• Difference between atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb

The atomic bomb releases energy during fission ­– splitting of the atom – and the hydrogen bomb, on the contrary, joins hydrogen atoms in bigger atoms, during a nuclear fusion.

The difference between nuclear fission and nuclear fusion is that, while the first one releases only 10% of energy contained in the nuclei of atoms, the second one releases around 40% of that energy. So the fusion can happen, very high temperatures are needed to start the process. Therefore, nuclear fission is used as a “trigger” to generate big amount of energy, which will cause the fusion process.

• Curiosity

On November 1st, 1952 the fisrt and only hydrogen bomb in history was detonated, in Eniwetok atoll – Marshall Islands. In that experiment, the H bomb had na explosion power of 10 million tons of TNT, something like 700 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.