About the nuclear blast in the space, is there always a ring? (if exists)?

Question

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiNzpgqaPMaU9oN6FdCBILcBxgt.;_ylv=3?qid=20080819093947AAYQJzD

copyright Gareth A

I remember having seen "nuclear explosions" in space in several movies

many many of them were accompanied with a "ring" of whatever it could be, pressure, radiation, even the blast itself

but

does it really occur in an actual nuclear explosion?

Answer 1

A small correction to Chuck's answer...

The one to blame is StarTrek, not StarWars.

The Ring appeared first in ST6

Answer 2

The only ring is the one I put on your sisters finger

Answer 3

Well, for the first few milliseconds there might be a ring, but it would be a result of the shape and structure of the bomb, and also the orientation of the primary explosives.  Once critical mass was achieved the result would be mostly spherical.

On second thought, I don't think there would be any shape to the explosion at all.  On earth there is a lot of smoke, but since there isn't any oxygen in space, there will be no combustion.  There would probably be a bright pinprick of light,  an assload of gamma radiation, and small pieces of metal flying in all directions.

Answer 4

There would be no ring, mushroom cloud, EMP, shockwave, or fireball. In space, a nuclear device going off would look like a bright flash, no more.

Answer 5

There would only be a ring if the bomb was carefully designed to produce one, similar to how fireworks can be made to produce different shapes.

But, in general, explosions in space will be spherical.  The ring is a Hollywood invention, started when the Death Star blew up in Star Wars, and copied ever since.

Answer 6

I think there is no ring. The effect of an explosion could be just the shock wave, seen on a 2-D space, a plane. Some of these explosion are produced becuase they are in touch with something else, otherwise the actual effect would have a spherical shape, that´s the reason why is rare to find that ring, but in the movies. For comparisson, I remember the shock wave of a supersonic aircraft when is brokes the sound barrier. There is a shape formed by condensed air. The plane is traveling in a specific direction and yet, the shock wave is not exactly ring-shaped.

http://www.coimbra.lip.pt/~vitaly/TFM_20...

http://mobile.emerce.nl/images/shockwave...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26366423@N0...

Howerver, ring-shaped blasts happen in nature:

http://www.axis.org/usuarios/bmsv/onda.j...

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2004/...

http://www.cielosur.com/mensajero/images...

Grettings.