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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6273748" data-attributes="member: 177">Careful there.  The nuke doesn't directly generate all that much heat.  It generates lots of hard radiation, which gets absorbed by the atmosphere around it, which then heats up as a result.  This is where a lot of the shockwave action of the bomb comes from as well.If you set it off in a vacuum, the radiation will just streak away in all directions without being absorbed.  If you set it off next to a space ship, the ship merely absorbs that portion of the radiation coming at it.  You may instantly melt or vaporize material, but you aren't left with a long-term heat dissipation issue.  In general, explosives are a lot less impressive in a vacuum than they are in atmosphere.</blockquote>