Nuclear Fireball

The largest nuclear fireball ever produced on Earth came from the Tsar Bomba, detonated by the Soviet Union on October 30, 1961.

With a yield of 50 megatons, it created a fireball approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) wide—so large it touched the ground and the stratosphere simultaneously.

The heat from the explosion could have caused third-degree burns at distances over 60 km (37 miles), and the resulting mushroom cloud soared over 60 kilometers into the atmosphere.

Tsar Bomba remains the most powerful human-made explosion in history.