16 Facts About Trinity test

1.

The Trinity test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what was then the USAAF Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, now part of White Sands Missile Range.

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2.

The Trinity test was of an implosion-design plutonium device, informally nicknamed "The Gadget", of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9,1945.

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3.

Trinity test discovered that, in addition to the plutonium-239 isotope, it contained significant amounts of plutonium-240.

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4.

In March 1944, planning for the Trinity test was assigned to Kenneth Bainbridge, a professor of physics at Harvard University, working under explosives expert George Kistiakowsky.

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5.

The Trinity test Gadget was officially a Y-1561 device, as was the Fat Man used a few weeks later in the bombing of Nagasaki.

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6.

Trinity test chose himself, Oppenheimer, Richard Tolman, Vannevar Bush, James Conant, Brigadier General Thomas F Farrell, Charles Lauritsen, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Sir Geoffrey Taylor, and Sir James Chadwick.

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7.

Trinity test wore gloves to protect his hands, and sunglasses underneath the welding goggles that the government had supplied everyone with.

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8.

Trinity test brought suntan lotion, which he shared with the others.

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9.

Trinity test would take the only known well-exposed color photograph of the detonation explosion.

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10.

Trinity test had prepared four releases, covering outcomes ranging from an account of a successful test to catastrophic scenarios involving serious damage to surrounding communities, evacuation of nearby residents, and a placeholder for the names of those killed.

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11.

Information about the Trinity test was made public shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima.

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12.

Results of the test were conveyed to the Secretary of War Henry L Stimson at the Potsdam Conference in Germany in a coded message from his assistant George L Harrison:.

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13.

Heaviest fallout contamination outside the restricted Trinity test area was 30 miles from the detonation point, on Chupadera Mesa.

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14.

Trinity test discounted the possibility that the Hiroshima bomb was responsible, due to the timing of the events.

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15.

On December 21,1965, the 51,500-acre Trinity test Site was declared a National Historic Landmark district, and on October 15,1966, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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16.

Trinity test SiteHas Been Designated aNationalHistoric LandmarkThis Site possesses National Significancein Commemorating the History of theUnited States of America1975National Park ServiceUnited States Department of the Interior.

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