When did the Trinity nuclear test occur?
The detonation occurred at 5:29:21 MWT on the 16th of July 1945. The device exploded with an energy equivalent to approximately twenty-one kilotons of TNT.
Questions about Trinity (nuclear test)
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Where is the Trinity nuclear test site located today?
The site lies at the northern end of the Alamogordo Bombing Range in Socorro County near Carrizozo and San Antonio, New Mexico. It was renamed White Sands Proving Ground on the 9th of July 1945 and now includes a monument marking the explosion hypocenter.
Why did scientists change the design from Thin Man to Gadget for Trinity?
Plutonium-240 impurities found by Emilio Segrè caused spontaneous fission that would make a gun-type weapon like Thin Man fizzle prematurely. Scientists therefore adopted an implosion design using explosive lenses to compress the plutonium core rapidly.
What happened to the Jumbo containment vessel during the Trinity test?
Jumbo survived the explosion while its three hundred fifty-foot steel tower was completely vaporized. The rusting skeleton of the one thousand five hundred ton sphere sits in the parking lot at the Trinity site today after being moved there in 1979.
How many people attended the first public open house at Trinity Site?
About six hundred fifty people attended the first Trinity Site open house in September 1953. Visitors were allowed to see ground zero and the McDonald Ranch House areas where the bomb components were assembled.