"Cosmic bomb" was another name for the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

. It was used for a short period of time in 1945 and 1946. The first ''New York Times'' story about the bombing of Hiroshima referred to "this terrible new weapon, which the War Department also calls the 'Cosmic Bomb.'" Another article noted that "what the Army has called the 'cosmic bomb' was not regarded by those responsible for winning the war against Japan as the factor which, of itself, would give the war its finishing touch", and a headline reported "Secret War Nipped Reich Cosmic Bomb."

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), them ...

uses the phrase several times in his 1973 novel ''

Gravity's Rainbow ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is a 1973 novel by American writer Thomas Pynchon. The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. In particular, ...

'', which is set roughly in the period during which the term was current. The term rapidly fell into disuse as applied to weaponry, soon yielding to "atomic bomb" (which, in turn, was eventually to yield to "nuclear weapon"). In equestrian circles, it survived for many years in the racing career of a thoroughbred named "Cosmic Bomb" and in the pedigrees of horses he sired. More recently, the term has been applied to powerful energy surges from celestial objects known as magnetars.{{cite web, url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989278,00.html, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306163010/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989278,00.html, url-status=dead, archive-date=March 6, 2008, title=Cosmic Bomb, author=Michael D. Lemonick, date=Oct 12, 1998, access-date=2008-07-24, publisher=Time

References

Nuclear weapons