MIT Museum

Major collection: Science & Technology
Named collection: Harold E. Edgerton Collection
Object type: color slide
Maker: Edgerton, Harold Eugene
Place made: United States
Date made: 1978-02
Materials: 35mm film; cardboard
Measurements: 2" x 2"

Copy of a high-speed photograph of an atomic bomb explosion, using a magneto-optic shutter. (CC) Atomic bomb explosion photographed by Edgerton and his colleagues at EG&G, likely at the Nevada Proving Grounds, on commission for the Atomic Energy Commission; circa 1952. Revealing the incredible anatomy of the first microseconds of an atomic explosion, the fireball was documented in a 1/100,000,000-of-a-second exposure, taken from seven miles away with a lens ten feet long. In another few microseconds the Joshua trees, silhouetted at the base of the rapidly expanding explosion, will be engulfed by the shock and heat waves and incinerated. (see "Stopping TIme" (1987), p, 145). (CC)

HEE-SC-04589