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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So a bomb in space acts so different from on earth. First and foremost, as you know one of the deadliest parts of a traditional bomb is the shrapnel as much as the explosion itself. Luckily in atmosphere the air slows shrapnel down after a bit. In space there is no such thing. The shrapnel thrown from a bomb will travel without slowing until it hits something else. So even a distant explosion can send deadly shrapnel speeding towards something a long way off.
Bombs themselves also produce gas. It’s this spontaneous expulsion of gasses and energy that creates the shockwave in atmosphere. However in space that gas is still produced. So the threat of the shockwave is still there. However its effect is less significant than one in atmosphere. That is unless you’re in a pressurized metal space craft. Then the energy of the explosion can transfer into the craft and compromise the pressure sealing leading to all that pressure trying to escape and creating a secondary explosion via rapid decompression.
So they’re equally dangerous in or out of atmosphere. It’s just the danger changes.
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