TIL about the Vela incident, an unidentified double flash occurring in the south Atlantic on September 22, 1979. It is believed to be a secret nuclear test carried out by South Africa and Israel.

submitted by Jashfior from en.wikipedia.org

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]AnarchySpeach 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

in October 1979 was that the American intelligence community had "high confidence" that the event was a low-yield nuclear explosion, although no radioactive debris had been detected, and there were "no corroborating seismic or hydro-acoustic data".[18] A later NSC report revised this position to "inconclusive" about whether a nuclear test had occurred.[19] That same report concluded that if a nuclear test had been carried out, responsibility should be ascribed to the Republic of South Africa.[19]

This is disturbing.

A test in Western Australia conducted a few months later found some increased nuclear radiation levels.[26][page needed] A detailed study done by New Zealand's National Radiation Laboratory found no evidence of excess radioactivity, and neither did a U.S. Government-funded nuclear laboratory.[27] Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists who worked on the Vela Hotel program have professed their conviction that the Vela Hotel satellite's detectors worked properly.[15][28]

Australia detected radiation. America found none?

There's also more possible countries than Israel and South Africa.

Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, and France. Any of them could have done it.

While there is the possibility of it being a joint South Africa-Israel test, it lacks any concrete proof to confirm it, so there's only speculation. While it is extremely likely we don't know for sure.