That's a great post, and yes, I was certainly working under the assumption that a nuclear explosion would have a distinct spectroscopic signature when compared

That's a great post, and yes, I was certainly working under the assumption that a nuclear explosion would have a distinct spectroscopic signature when compared to the emissions of our Sun. Is that false? If we can (eventually) detect the oxygen atmosphere of a planet through passive spectroscopy, then it does seem to follow that we could easily detect nuclear explosions from the surface of that same planet. Unless I'm missing something...