Word: thermonuclear
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Puzzling bursts of energy in space may be thermonuclear blasts...
...that occurs when ordinary matter meets antimatter. Now they have settled on a simpler explanation. At a gathering of more than 100 astronomers and astrophysicists at the University of California at Santa Cruz, most of the experts agreed that the starbursts, at least those emitting X rays, are distant thermonuclear explosions. In effect, nature is setting off its own H-bombs. University of California Astrophysicist Stanford Woosley, the conference chairman, said: "It is as if an object 100,000 times brighter than the sun were there one second and gone the next...
...stream of gases, mostly hydrogen and helium, from its larger companion. As the gases spiral toward the neutron star, they heat up, reaching such high temperatures (up to 10 million°C) and densities that the atoms of hydrogen smash into each other and fuse. This causes a runaway thermonuclear explosion that spews a torrent of X rays. During the period of calm after the explosion, ranging from a few hours to a few days, enough fresh material piles up on the surface of the neutron star to fuel another giant blast...
...them. There is no room in the concept of mutual deterrence for one side to claim, as Reagan did, a monopoly on virtue and peaceful intentions. Sure enough, Izvestia, the Soviet government newspaper, launched a rhetorical counterstrike at Reagan, accusing him of turning "Washington into a dangerous hotbed of thermonuclear confrontation." Nor is there any way to exorcise from deterrence what Reagan called "the specter of retaliation." That specter is in the nature of nuclear weapons. As Winston Churchill observed nearly three decades ago: "Safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation...
...guidance systems off course), searing temperatures (high enough on the periphery of the fireball to incinerate other warheads) and a flood of radiation (highenergy gamma and X rays, plus neutrons, which would wreck a warhead's electronics). The blast would also produce the deadly vacuum characteristic of all thermonuclear explosions, destroying almost all the atmosphere in an incoming warhead's path and effectively ending its maneuvering ability. Any warheads surviving these multiple perils would probably be burned up by frictional heat as they plunged earthward at more than 5,000 m.p.h. through dust and debris. Under its worst...