The most dangerous thing in the world: Just look at it for 5 minutes and you will die, you won't be able to get close for hundreds of years!

This object is shaped like a giant leg, located in the Chernobyl area, Ukraine .

If you hear it, you might mistakenly think this is a supernatural object, taken from fantasy stories. However, it is completely real, the result of one of the most horrifying radiation leaks in history . To this day, people still call this object the "Elephant's Foot".

The Daily Mail called the "Elephant's Foot" "the most dangerous thing in the world". Even looking at this object can cause loss of life. Scientists predict that even after hundreds of years, we will not be able to get close to the "Elephant's Foot" without protective equipment.

Image of object called "Elephant's Foot".

How did "Elephant's Foot" appear?

On April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine encountered an accident. Experts discovered the problem and tried to turn it off but failed. The temperature in the reaction core increased to an uncontrollable level, causing the cooling water to immediately evaporate when injected.

The reactor eventually exploded due to excessive pressure, causing the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. That fall, when rescue teams arrived to contain the radiation, they first discovered "the world's most dangerous object."

According to scientists, when reactor No. 4 heated up, it melted the surrounding steel and concrete, forming "radioactive lava" . This object flows down, sweeps through many other objects, becoming a complex mixture with extremely high concentrations of radiation. As it cools, this hardens into a new material called corium. It was named "Elephant's Foot ".

An expert approaches the "Elephant's Foot".

The dangers of "Elephant's Foot"

In 1986, every hour "Elephant's Foot" emitted up to 10,000 crowns (a unit of radiation measurement) - a dose 1,000 times higher than the level that can cause cancer. To make it easier to understand, that amount of radiation is equivalent to 4.5 million X-rays that people still use during X-rays.

If you come into contact with this object for 30 seconds, you will experience dizziness and fatigue for at least a week. If exposed for 2 minutes, the cells will begin to hemorrhage. After 4 minutes, it will cause vomiting, diarrhea and fever. Finally, after 5 minutes of being close, the person exposed was almost incurable and died within 2 days.

Because of the danger of the "Elephant's Foot", there are very few photos of this object . The first photo was recorded in 1986 by members of the rescue team. Ten years later, the US Department of Energy also collected some photos of it.

Due to excessive radiation, the recorded image of the "Elephant's Foot" was also affected.

However, the person who has the most opportunity to come into contact with elephant feet is Artur Korneyev , deputy director of the Shelter Object project. He also directly took a few photos related to "Elephant's Feet" before safely walking out. An article published in 2021 revealed that Mr. Artur is still alive, in Ukraine.

However, Mr. Artur is an experienced expert and wore strict protective gear when exposed. Scientists still warn about the danger of the "Elephant's Foot" even though this object is gradually cooling after 4 decades.

In 2016, a structure made of concrete and steel called "Safe Prison" was placed above the "Elephant's Foot" to limit radiation leakage to the outside. Because corium is very rare, appearing only 5 times in history, no one is sure how "Elephant's Foot" will change in the future.