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Van Allen radiation belts

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Van Allen radiation belts

(van al -ĕn) Two regions within the Earth's magnetosphere in which charged particles become trapped and oscillate backward and forward between the magnetic poles as they spiral around magnetic field lines. The lower belt, which on average lies 5000 km above the equator, contains protons and electrons either captured from the solar wind or derived from collisions between upper atmosphere atoms and high-energy cosmic rays. The upper belt lies between about 25 000 and 36 000 km or more above the equator but curving downward toward the magnetic poles; it contains fewer and less-energetic particles than the lower belt, mainly electrons from the solar wind. The belts were discovered by James Van Allen in the course of his analysis of observations by early Explorer satellites in 1958.
Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006
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References in periodicals archive
SAMPEX--the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer-- continuously samples the Van Allen radiation belts around Earth.
The two best known effects of the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetosphere are the aurora borealis and the Van Allen radiation belts. These reactions have been studied closely since Van Allen's discovery in 1958.
The findings, says Ryan, support the theory that some protons get trapped in the magnetic arches of the corona, rattling back and forth inside a kind of magnetic slinky Earth's Van Allen radiation belts trap protons in a similar way, he adds.
25 ( ANI ): Scientists have explained the unprecedented behavior of a previously unknown third radiation ring that made a brief appearance between the inner and outer rings of Van Allen radiation belts in September 2012 and persisted for a month.
If you know anything about space exploration, you probably know of the Van Allen radiation belts that encircle Earth.
Andrei Konradi at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston notes that the growing amount of space trash may noticeably reduce the number of charged particles in Earth's Van Allen radiation belts.
Shprits, who was honored by President Obama last July with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, asserted that the Van Allen radiation belts can no longer be considered as one consistent mass of electrons since they behave according to their energies and react in various ways to the disturbances in space.
The Van Allen radiation belts, discovered by the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, were the first evidence of our magnetic protection.
At its highest point, or apogee, some 232,000 miles above Earth (58.7 earth radii), it avoids the hazards posed by the Van Allen radiation belts, which extend from about 621 to 37,282 miles above the surface.
The 84-pound space probe collected new data on the Van Allen radiation belts that would help others follow it into cislunar space.
Washington, July 26 ( ANI ): NASA scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, known as the Van Allen radiation belts.
The belt is composed of particles different from those in Earth's two Van Allen radiation belts, which were discovered in 1958.
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