World War III

Nuclear war between US and Russia would ‘blot out the Sun for a decade’ as experts predict apocalyptic aftermath of World War 3

By Harry Pettit

A NUCLEAR war between the US and Russia would envelope the planet in a decade of darkness during which nearly all life on Earth would perish.

That’s the cheery finding of a new scientific study in which experts envision the catastrophic aftermath of all-out nuclear war.
It follows the decision earlier this month by US President Donald Trump to pull out of a decades-old nuclear treaty with Russia.

White House officials said Russia had been in “material breach” of the treaty and made no effort to “come back into compliance.”

The new research was carried out by scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA.

They predicted the impact of nuclear war on the planet using climate models based on the effects of soot and ash coughed up by recent forest fires and volcanic eruptions.
GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR

A nuclear war between the US and Russia would cough up enough smoke to shroud the plunge the world into darkness for a decade

AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS

The research follows the decision earlier this month by US President Donald Trump to pull out of a decades-old nuclear treaty with Russia

Much like massive wildfires and eruptions, it’s predicted that multiple nuclear blasts would throw up enough smoke to blot out the Sun.

According to the study, a “large number of nuclear bombs” detonated in major cities would plunge the planet into “nuclear winter”.

Smoke generated by the blast “would cover the entire planet for years, blocking the Sun.”

Across the planet, average temperatures would drop by 9C, wreaking havoc on the planet’s wind and weather patterns.
CORBIS

Nuclear blast during a 1946 bomb test at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands

This would result in  “devastating” agricultural losses and the collapse of the summer monsoon season.

The study lines up with a 2007 climate model that also predicted what would happen in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

“Despite having different features and capabilities, both models produce similar results,” researchers wrote in the new paper.

“Nuclear winter, with below-freezing temperatures over much of the Northern Hemisphere during summer, occurs because of a reduction of surface solar radiation due to smoke lofted into the stratosphere.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin

This smoke would take about a decade to disperse, they concluded, leading to the death of much of life on Earth.

Models took into account a number of variables, including the number of bombs dropped, where they landed, and the amount of smoke produced.

All bombs were assumed to land either in Russia or the US, according to the research.

As tensions between the US and Russia rise, the threat of nuclear war between the two looms.

A UN arms chief recently warned that the world is closer to a nuclear conflict now than at any time since World War 2.

Terrifying space weapons of the future

Here are three of the scariest...

Rods from God

A strange but utterly terrifying weapon has been dubbed “rods from the God” and is based on the concept of creating man-made meteorites that can be guided towards the enemy.Instead of using rocks rods the size of telephone poles are deployed.These would be made out of tungsten — a rare metal that can stand the intense heat generated by entering Earth’s atmosphere.One satellite fires the rods towards the Earth’s atmosphere while the other steers them to a target on the ground.Reaching speeds of 7000mph they hit the ground with the force of a small nuclear weapon — but crucially creating no radiation fall out.As bizarre as it sounds, a US Congressional report recently revealed the military has been pushing ahead with the kinetic space weapons.

Molten metal cannons

This intriguing idea is being developed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).It is called the Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition or MAHEM.This game changing rail-gun can fire a jet of molten metal, hurled through space at several hundred miles per second by the most powerful electromagnets ever built.The molten metal can then morph into an aerodynamic slug during flight and pierce through another spacecraft or satellite and a munition explodes inside.

Space force ships

Already the United States is powering head with its spacecraft, although China is busy developing one of their own.The top secret American XS-1 under development by DARPA.It can travel ten times the speed of sound and launch missiles.Meanwhile an unmanned craft is currently being developed in the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre in Mianyang, Sichuan province, which is also known as Base 29.

According to the researchers, the only way to avoid such a scenario is total nuclear disarmament.

“To completely remove the possibility of an environmental catastrophe as a result of a full‐scale nuclear war, decision makers must have a full understanding of the grave climatic consequences of nuclear war and act accordingly,” they wrote.

“Ultimately, the reduction of nuclear arsenals and the eventual disarmament of all nuclear capable parties are needed.”