UPDATE:  Solved by Rob at 12:01 CDT

How has your week been?  Are you up, alert, and bright-eyed?  If not, go grab a cup of caffeine real quick… we’ll wait for you.

Got your caffeine ready to go?  I think you’ll enjoy today’s riddle; I enjoyed constructing it, and usually if a riddle leaves me somewhat *blah*, you don’t get too worked up about it, either.

Today’s riddle answer is an event:

.
This event occurred in the 20th Century.

It was big, but not the biggest we’ve ever seen.

In fact, it could have gone completely unnoticed at the time.

Oh, come now. You know what this is.

There was little scientific curiosity about this event when it occurred.

In fact, it wasn’t even investigated until over a decade had passed.

That’s amazing because events of this nature have caused major problems in the past, and will cause major problems in the future.

And you know this image, also.

You’ll often see mention of this, in pseudo-science, popular media, and scientific inquiry.

This event destroys, but that’s only one half of the coin.

Life as we know it probably wouldn’t be possible without events just like this one.

The goddess of beauty. Standing on the surface of another planet.

Events like this were more common in the past.

It happens everywhere.

You see something like it in miniature all the time.

Castle Bravo

And there you have it.  This riddle requires a specific answer, not one in general.  For instance, if the answer was the Sun, I wouldn’t accept “a star” for an answer.  Good luck!

Tremble in fear, Human! I have you in my clutches. RAWR!