Did you know that spending just five minutes in a room with the world's most dangerous object is enough to kill you?
You read that right. A mere five minutes. So, it's safe to say you don't want to mess around with the appropriately ominous-sounding 'Elephant's Foot.'
And, while you might have never heard of it, the object's location shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
Advert
'Elephant's Foot' can be found in a basement in Pripyat, Ukraine – the home of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the 1980s.
On 26 April, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant experienced a critical meltdown, resulting in a number of explosions, raging fires and a catastrophic spread of radiation across surrounding areas.
Dozens of people were killed in the direct aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, with thousands more perishing due to radiation-related causes in the years that followed.
Advert
The 'Elephant's Foot' is a big black mass of dangerous waste that remains in the basement below the failed reactor, named so because of its resemblance to the large wrinkled foot of the animal.
When emergency crews fighting the disaster in 1986 made it to the basement, they found black lava that had oozed directly from the core.
Reportedly about one metre in size, it consists of concrete, sand and melted nuclear fuel and weighs around two metric tons.
With the radiation, crews knew not to approach it and, with it still being tipped as the most dangerous object in the world, you'd be smart to follow suit.
Advert
According to science magazine Nautilus, just 30 seconds of exposure to the thing will hit you with dizziness and fatigue.
Two minutes and your cells will begin to haemorrhage and four minutes in, you’ll have vomiting, diarrhoea and fever.
And, according to readings taken at the time, the molten core emitted so much radiation that if you managed to last just 300 seconds near it, you'd have just two days to live.
Advert
Ten years later, it was only emitting one tenth of the radiation it once had.
Still, just 500 seconds of exposure would be enough to bring on radiation sickness and a little over an hour would be lethal.
While the Chernobyl disaster happened more than three decades ago, the 'Elephant's Foot' remains in place melting into the base of the power plant.
And, it's still so radioactive that it will remain dangerous for tens of thousands of years to come.
Bec Oakes