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The Van Allen Belts and the Great Electron Escape
Artist concept of the twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes spacecraft, scheduled for launch in August 2012. Credit: NASA
During the 1950s and just before the great “Space Race” began, scientists like Kristian Birkeland, Carl Stormer, and Nicholas Christofilos had been paying close attention to a theory – one that involved trapped, charged particles in a ring around the Earth. This plasma donut held in place by our planet’s magnetic field was later confirmed by the first three Explorer missions under the direction of Dr. James Van Allen. Fueled by perhaps solar winds, or cosmic rays, the knowledge of their existence was the stuff of nightmares for an uniformed public. While the “radiation” can affect objects passing through it, it doesn’t reach Earth, and this realization quickly caused fears to die. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the Van Allen Radiation Belts that mystify modern science. (…)
Read the rest of The Van Allen Belts and the Great Electron Escape (861 words)
© tammy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Energetically Charged Particles, GOES, plasma, POES, radiation belts, Radiation Storms, Radiation Zones, Sun-Earth Connection, THEMIS, Van Allen Belts
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