Fascinating, Beautiful And Horrifying All At Once

“A fireball begins to rise, and the world’s first atomic mushroom cloud begins to form, nine seconds after Trinity detonated on July 16, 1945. (U.S. Department of Defense)”

"Complete destruction of House No. 1, located 3,500 feet from ground zero, by an atomic blast on March 17, 1953, at Yucca Flat at the Nevada Proving Ground. The time from the first to last picture was 2.3 seconds. The camera was completely enclosed in a 2-inch lead sheath as a protection against radiation. The only source of light was that from the bomb. In frame 1, the house is lit by the blast. By frame 2 the radiating energy has set it on fire, and the remaining frames show the rapid disintegration of the house by the blast wave.(U.S. Department of Defense)"

"In Operation Doorstep, conducted during the larger Operation Upshot-Knothole nuclear bomb test, mannequins are seated at a table in the dining room of house number two, attending a "dinner party" thrown by Civil Defense officials who are testing the effects of an atomic explosion on houses and occupants on March 15, 1953. (AP Photo/Dick Strobel)"

"(2 of 2) After the blast, mannequins lie strewn about the room, their "dinner party" interrupted violently by an atomic blast on March 17, 1953. (U.S. Department of Defense)"

"Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer is seen in silhouette as he oversees final assembly of The Gadget at the Trinity test site in July of 1945. (U.S. Department of Defense)"

"Operation Greenhouse took place in the spring of 1951, consisting of four explosions at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Pacific Ocean. This photo is from the third test, George, on May 9, 1951, the first thermonuclear bomb test, yielding 225 kilotons.(U.S. Department of Defense)"

My Thoughts:

I think that the scale of these events is hard to understand in our post-atomic age. We live in a world where nuclear events seem ordinary. Think about this: These explosions represented the first of their kind, outside of a star, in our solar-system's history, and we made them happen. That is spectacularly audacious. The sad/horrifying part is that we did it, not for the sake of science or understanding, but as a way to kill each other. We replicated a stellar event to kill people.

Fantastic Photo Essay at The Atlantic Monthly