![]() ![]() ![]() The third belt lasted just a month, but appeared again later in the mission with major solar activity.Ĭredit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics LaboratoryĮxplorer 1’s discoveries six decades ago paved the way for new generations of spacecraft to explore the radiation belts. Within days of their launch, the probes found the void between the inner and outer belts - which was thought to be empty - was occupied by a third, temporary belt. ![]() “At Earth, we can study these details and apply that knowledge both to our journey to Mars and to better protect astronauts at the Moon.”įrom the beginning, the Van Allen Probes set a pace of rapid discovery. “We study the Van Allen radiation belts both for scientific reasons - to understand particle acceleration, which occurs through the universe - and practical reasons - because particles accelerated to high energies are a hazard to both astronauts and spacecraft,” Sibeck said. Equipped with superior, radiation-hardened technology, the Van Allen Probes’ instruments go far beyond Explorer 1’s Geiger counter to observe particles, waves and fields in the radiation belts. In 2012, NASA launched the twin Van Allen Probes to study particle behavior in the dynamic region. Sixty years later, scientists are still working to understand the peculiar and puzzling nature of the Van Allen Belts. “As technology advances, it’s actually becoming even more pressing to understand and predict our space environment.” “Our current technology is ever more susceptible to these accelerated particles because even a single hit from a particle can upset our ever smaller instruments and electronics,” said David Sibeck, Van Allen Probes mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Understanding the dynamics of this region is essential for protecting technological assets and planning crewed space missions. Satellites that unwittingly or intentionally venture into the belts can be damaged by the radiation, which could have an impact on unprotected astronauts as well. The inner belt results from interactions of cosmic rays with Earth’s atmosphere. The outer belt is made up of billions of high-energy particles that originate from the Sun and become trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, an area known as the magnetosphere. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Historic image of Van Allen Belts courtesy of NASA’s Langley Research Center ![]()
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