The fastest man-made artifact is neither a jet nor a rocket. It is, however, a steel shell from the American nuclear bomb test.
In August 1957, the Americans conducted a bomb test they named Pascal B. A bomb was detonated at the bottom of a 157 meter deep hole and a 500 kg heavy steel block and concrete was placed on top of it.
In 1957, the US tested 29 nuclear bombs in Operation Blumbbob.
The scientists set up a high-speed camera to capture the steel hammer as it shot out of the hole like a bullet. The speed caught them by surprise.
During this massive explosion that shot up a pillar of fire hundreds of meters high, the camera captured only one image of the blast before it disappeared.
Video: See some of the Operation Blumbbob nuclear explosions:
Calculations showed that the speed of the impact was a whopping 200,000 km/h. – faster than any other man-made artifact.
According to the scientists, the plume may have reached out of the Earth’s atmosphere. If so, the US is the first country to send an object into space – and it’s still on the way.
