radiation belts

One or more doughnut-shaped regions in the magnetosphere of a planet in which energetic electrons and the ionized nuclei of atoms, chiefly protons from hydrogen atoms, are trapped by the planet's magnetic field. The particles within the belt, whose axis is the magnetic axis of the planet, spiral along magnetic field lines, traveling backward and forward between reflections which occur as they approach the magnetic poles. This motion produces synchrotron emission from the particles. The particles are either captured from the solar wind or are formed by collisions between cosmic rays and atoms or ions in the planet's outer atmosphere.

The Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all known to possess radiation belts. The magnetic field of Mercury appears to be too weak to sustain belts. The radiation belts of Jupiter are many times more intense than the Van Allen radiation belts of the Earth and pose a threat to spacecraft systems in the vicinity of the planet.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

"Radiation belt electrons are released from the Earth's magnetic field and charge the mesosphere during auroral breakup.

Science of Auroral Breakups

February, 1966: Two Russian dogs sent through the Van Allen radiation belt - the highest flight at that time by living creatures.

THE 12 YEARS OF SPACE HISTORY

Topics of the 19 papers include global MHD eigenmodes of the outer magnetosphere, the effect of EMIC waves on radiation belt particles, passive and active radar techniques for detecting the ULF waves, and electron phase space density signatures.

Magnetospheric ULF waves; synthesis and new directions

I do not know what planet these people come from but their brain cells must have been seriously damaged as they passed through the Van Allen radiation belt.

Vent your spleen

The radiation zone exists - it's called the Van Allen radiation belt - and it's something NASA had to consider during the Apollo missions.

Was the moon landing faked? Controversial Nibiru author David Meade weighs in on NASA Apollo 11 hoax; The controversial author has addressed long-held conspiracy theories that NASA never actually landed on the moon

Juno will travel through the previously unexplored region above the planet's poles, collecting the first images from that region, along with data about electromagnetic forces and high-energy particles in the harsh radiation belt environment of Jupiter's inner magnetosphere.

Aerojet Rocketdyne Propulsion plays role in Juno mission

Specific topics include narrow plasmas streams as a candidate to populate the inner magnetosphere, quick response of the near-earth magnetotail to changes in the interplanetary magnetic field, energetic electron response to magnetic storms, experimental data on the dynamics of the earth's radiation belt, injection of energetic ions during substorms, substorm associated spikes in high energy particle precipitation, and ring current behavior as revealed by energetic proton precipitation.

The Inner Magnetosphere: Physics and Modeling

The final session will cover Space Protection Technologies and Programs and will include briefings on Space Electronics Overview (Maj Tony Kadrovach, USAF, AFRL/VSSE); Nuclear and Natural Radiation Belt Remediation (Capt Aaron Metz, USAF, AFRL/VSSV); Belt Remediation Physics (Dr.

Fifth Annual Space and Air Protection Conference

America got into space to stay on February 1, 1958, when Explorer 1 went into orbit to the gleeful, heavily accented jubilation of Wernher von Braun: "A great day for American rocketry!" Explorer's not-quite-accidental discovery of a radiation belt around the Earth--predicted in theory a half-century earlier by a European physicist--stands in the record books as the first significant discovery of the Space Age.

The wrong stuff