A Man-Made Supernova on the Surface of Our Planet

Although the United States and Russia (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]) were, formally speaking, allies during World War II, the postwar occupation of Eastern Europe by the USSR behind an iron curtain, its mercurial and murderous Communist leader Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), and the pervasive fear of nuclear weapons contributed to the start of the cold war. The USSR detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949 and the ensuing arms race would dominate the second half of the 20th cenmry. 

On November 1, 1952, the United States detonated the world s first hydrogen bomb ( Ivy Mike ) over Enewetak Island in the Pacific Ocean. The H-bomb relies upon nuclear fusion rather than nuclear 

The original einsteinium isotope discovered in Enewetak fallout was Es with a half-life of 20 days. Eventually other einsteinium isotopes were created under controlled conditions. The longest-lived is Es, ty, = 275 days. The longest-lived isotope of fermium is Fm, ti/, = 100.5 days. Chemically speaking, einsteinium and fermium are 

---