what is in an atomic missile that can cause so much harm?

Answer 1

There is no such thing as an "atomic missile". During WWII, scientists worked on programs to create a devastating weapon that a sincle aircraft could drop on a city ending the fighting before it started. Ultimately they created the Hydrogen bomb (A.K.A. H-Bomb), and then the Atomic bomb (A.K.A. A-Bomb). Neither was a missile. They were too large to be mounted on the missiles that were available at the time. The U.S. Army had a cannon that would launch a "tactical" hydrogen warhead, but it was not used in active service. Today we use a more advanced technology that is given the umbrella term of Nuclear Warhead.

A nuclear detonation is basically created when high explosives are shaped to detonate on a core of extremely dense material such as uranium or plutonium. When the detonation occurs, the forces are so incredible that it actually rips the atoms that the dense material is made of apart. When you split an atom, immense ammounts of energy is released. That energy is released in the form of light (heat), radio-active energy, and of course an enormous blast wave. As a side-effect, the radio-active material that the warhead was made of and the radiation caused by the blast irradiates everything else they touch. This is what fall-out is. The dirt and dust blown up into the air is now radio-active and harmful to all living things.

When a nuclear warhead detonates you will initially have the light (heat) wave that can reach enormous tempuratures virtually incinerating anything within sight. Next comes the blast wave, tearing anything within it's blast-radius apart followed shortly by the vaccuum effect of the atmosphere pulling itself back to normal thus creating the mushroom cloud you are probably familiar with. Lastly you have the fall out from the radio-active materials and dust created by the blast. These effects last a very long time and cause casualties long after the initial blast.

And as the very smart alien on your other (very similar) question stated, there is an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP)wave emitted during the blast that devastates electronic equipment. This can be used as a non-lethal form of nuclear warfare to knock out enemy equipment rendering it useless.

The whole process of the detonation is called fission (atom splitting). The sun (the one in the sky) is also nuclear, but operates on a priciple called fusion (atom fusing).

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

The warhead on an atomic missle is a bomb built out of a mixture of highly radioactive elements. When it bomb explodes there is a release of enormous amounts of energy. This is either hear or radiation. The heat can start fires miles away from the blast. The radiation turns the area around the bomb radioactive, and people must stay away from the area for weeks or months with out protection. Also there is a cloud of radioactive material that contaminates huge areas downwind.
Many of the chemicals produced by the bomb are enough like the ones in our body that they are absorbed into our bodies. They are very dangerous and can cause cancer. If the radiation is high enough it can kill your blood and you die.

I hope that you don't find this too scary, I had nightmares when I first found out.
There is an article in this months Scientific American which gives more detail.

Answer 3

Atomic weapons are of two types: fission and fusion. The fusion weapons are more destructive. The weapons are comprised of refined uranium or plutonium.

These elements are naturally radioactive - which means they are giving off electrons, gamma rays, and other types of energy. In fission, an atom of uranium or plutonim is split violently in a reaction that produces several high energy electrons. These electrons collide with other atoms and cause them to split. There is a chain reaction that occurs very fast and gathers speed. Finally, when it hits critical mass the cycle starts growing exponentially until there is a huge and sudden release of energy - which is the source of the destruction.

Answer 4

Pure unleashment of atom splitting power ~~