This is probably going to blow your mind, but guess what?

It's a bad idea to set off a nuclear bomb in space.

Shouldn't be an issue, right?

Seems like an easy thing to avoid doing.

Unfortunately, it seems like some folks may disagree.

The United States Department of Defense has sounded the alarm on a potential threat from

Russia in the form of a hypothetical program aimed at putting a nuclear weapon into orbit.

While there's no evidence that such a device is on its way into space, let alone already up there, I think it's safe to say we'd all rather be sure

that Russia like definitely wasn't going to do that.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

What actually happens when a nuke goes off in space?

Thanks to the hubris of humankind, that's a question we can answer from experience.

For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.

Associate News Editor Allison Parcel is joining me today to tell us more. So Allison, what are we talking about when we talk about nukes in space?

Yeah, it's definitely worth being specific, but like what we're talking is specifically about nukes in orbit.

I mean there's also the question of nuclear power in space.

We power satellites with nuclear power.

There's some fun tales and by fun I mean distressing from the 60s and 70s about

attempts to power satellites with nuclear fuel. In 1978 a Russian satellite that was powered by a nuclear reactor failed and debris fell

scattered over Canada so that was fun but if we're talking specifically about

nuclear weapons positioned in orbit to potentially be exploded in orbit.

That's like a whole separate question.

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