Smart Nonsense revisits a nuclear test's flying manhole cover

The fast-starting science Short tells an extraordinary launch story, but whether the iron cap reached space is another question.

Channel: Smart Nonsense Story of October 28, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 259,764 views a day, 6.3 times a normal first day on this channel (41,270).

The FASTEST object we’ve sent to space..

A concrete plug vaporizes in the animation. For the next attempt, scientists seal a deep shaft with a thick iron cap, giving Smart Nonsense an unlikely object to put at the center of a space explainer.

"The FASTEST object we've sent to space.." reached nearly 200,000 views in 14 hours, putting its estimated first-day audience at more than six times the channel's usual Shorts start.

The presenter explains why nuclear testing moved underground: above-ground explosions spread radioactive dust. His account then follows the blast up the shaft and sends the cover skyward, turning a piece of heavy infrastructure into an accidental projectile.

There is a distinction worth keeping, though. The historical Pascal-B test did eject a metal cap in 1957, but its survival through the atmosphere and arrival in space were never established. The Short presents that last step as settled; it isn't.

That uncertainty is also the most substantive thread in the comments. Viewers question whether the cap could have survived, ask about its velocity and bring NASA's Parker Solar Probe into the speed discussion. Others take the premise somewhere more comic, imagining an astronaut encountering a stray manhole cover.

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More from Smart NonsenseThis week on the channel +2.6M views this weekSmart Nonsense goes beneath ice rinks and Antarctic iceFive new explainers span frozen surfaces, particle collisions and a flying iron cap that has reached roughly 740,000 views.Channel: Smart Nonsense · Story of October 31, 2026 Also in Science and experimentsA video worth knowingHank Green tests RFK Jr.'s measles explanation against vaccination trendsHis commentary contrasts Kennedy's account of pandemic disruption with falling MMR coverage and the demands of containing a highly infectious disease.Channel: Hank Green · Story of October 31, 2026 A different discovery todayVideo taking off 47x its usual first dayDiane Sawyer's Patrick Stewart interview closes World News TonightThe October 29 edition also covers Alaska's Senate probes and a Pentagon firing, but its comment section belongs largely to the actor.Channel: ABC News · Story of October 31, 2026

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Smart Nonsense revisits a nuclear test's flying manhole cover The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/smartnonsense-18848/?from=kit

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The numbers

The manhole-cover Short is drawing an unusually large audience for Smart Nonsense, with its projected first-day views well above the channel's usual Shorts start.

the video's first day

usual first day here

41,270

this video

259,764

subscribers

3,530,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

2,742,783,816

views per day

356,992

typical day: 444,043

the video

views

197,724

likes

7,098

comments

64

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

Steve Mould

3,620,000

NileBlue

3,610,000

Physics Girl

3,550,000

Smart Nonsense

3,530,000

PBS Space Time

3,530,000

MinuteEarth

3,340,000

As of October 28, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.