Not talking about your ship exploding, that’s obviously bad. I’m talking about how much damage would a bomb actually do if exploded in the moon for example. I understand there is no atmosphere to push against, but I don’t understand what else appart from the shrapnel could cause damage. Isn’t most of a bomb’s damage produced by the shockwave? And shockwaves cannot be produced in a vacuum, right?
Also, let’s say it’s a nuclear bomb. The radiation is obviously bad, but with some shielding, same here, what damage will it actually do?
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u/copnonymous Covers it pretty well. Depending on the explosion, thermal radiation can be significant. That is, the radiation, even if it is non-ionizing, can be dangerous just by heating things up. Proposals for using nuclear bombs to deflect asteroids involve using intense radiation to vaporize part of the surface. The expanding rock vapor is what pushes the asteroid. Something powerful enough to blow up the moon would likely produce a tremendous amount of heat.
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