Looking up, what does a nuclear war look like?

[The Squire of Gothos]

I was just about to spoil a certain film that I've just finished watching, but instead of that, I'll skip straight to my question.

Imagine you're in a boat in the middle of the Atlantic or in the mountains of Europe, somewhere, anywhere, that's under the flight paths of ICBMs being shot off between the US and USSR (and any other capable nation)

Looking up, what might you see? Would you see lots of stars moving quickly by, as you would with a satellite passing? Or would they all look quite different?

 

[M'Sharak]

Unless you were fairly close to a launch site, chances are you wouldn't see much of anything.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

You'd see large flashes of light on the horizons as the nukes detonate on the mainlands.

 

[anti-matter]

Depending on if it's was night and the position of the moon you'd see a satellite. I know that sounds boring esp if you're making a movie.

 

[Dayton3]

I wouldn't doubt that you might be able to hear some of the explosions in the distance.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Damn, now I'm curious what movie you saw... but then I'm not sure I want to be spoiled.

 

[JustAFriend]

You wouldn't even see anything that resembled a satellite.

The small size of an individual MIRV warhead and the materials that they're made from would reflect very very little light. (Don't forget they don't want them to be detected by anti-satellite systems.)

In the middle of the ocean the only thing you would notice would be the silence on the radio and a spike in the background radiation in a few days.

The old 1959 movie "On the Beach" would still be close....

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Slim Pickens riding on the bomb?

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Babaganoosh said:
Slim Pickens riding on the bomb?

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOO!"

(And no, that's not the film I was watching, although it had a similar ending)

 

[Noname Given]

The Squire of Gothos said:

Babaganoosh said:
Slim Pickens riding on the bomb?

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOO!"

(And no, that's not the film I was watching, although it had a similar ending)

Must've been Fail Safe (and I assume it's he whole Ambassador/Russian Embassy bit )

 

[Mallory]

If it was nighttime you might see some interesting things when nations start kicking off their ASATs.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Noname Given said:

The Squire of Gothos said:

Babaganoosh said:
Slim Pickens riding on the bomb?

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOO!"

(And no, that's not the film I was watching, although it had a similar ending)

Must've been Fail Safe (and I assume it's he whole Ambassador/Russian Embassy bit )

Spoiler: Nah it was;

Terminator 3, I was thinking about this at the end when we see ICBMs flying in what seem to be some pretty low arcs

Mallory said:
If it was nighttime you might see some interesting things when nations start kicking off their ASATs.

That would look groovy Image links.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

The Squire of Gothos said:

Spoiler: Nah it was;

Terminator 3, I was thinking about this at the end when we see ICBMs flying in what seem to be some pretty low arcs

That was just to make the movie look good.

 

[Meredith]

The best place to be in the world during and after a nuclear war would be in a Nuclear Submarine.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Fire said:That was just to make the movie look good.

I figured as much, but I wasn't sure what it would actually look like.

 

[JustAFriend]

Babaganoosh said:
Slim Pickens riding on the bomb?

Slim Pickens Rides the Bomb HERE

 

[Admiral_Young]

I once asked my friend about this who's a lot smarter than I am about these kinds of things and he said pretty much what has been said in above posts that you probably wouldn't see or feel anything unless of course you were in proximity of the actual denotation or explosion. Its an interesting question to ponder...