"study two extreme and dynamic regions of space known as the Van Allen Radiation Belts that surround Earth. Named for their discoverer, James Van Allen, these two concentric, donut-shaped rings are filled with high-energy particles that gyrate, bounce, and drift through the region, sometimes shooting down to Earth's atmosphere, sometimes escaping out into space. The radiation belts swell and shrink over time as part of a much larger space weather system driven by energy and material that erupt off the sun's surface and fill the entire solar system." [2]
While most satellites are designed to turn off during intense radiation bombardments,Van Allen Probes are built to operate, tolerate, and collect data during such harsh conditions.
It is thus so fortunate and fitting that NASA Scientists have discovered a third radiation belt around our very own home planet Earth using Van Allen Probe's data soon after its launch [3]. To learn more about this discovery, please visit here.
Credit: NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center.
This discovery is a humbling reminder that there is a lot yet to be learned about our home, Earth, let alone other planets and corners of this vast universe.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt
- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/mission/index.html
- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/news/third-belt.html
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