Concepts
Van Allen Radiation Belts
Also Known As Van Allen Belts
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Two doughnut shaped zones of high energy charged particles, mostly from the solar wind and cosmic rays, trapped around Earth by its magnetic field: an inner belt dominated by protons and an outer belt dominated by electrons, with a relatively particle-poor slot between them. Confirmed by the earliest satellite missions of the Space Age, they remain central to understanding radiation hazards for spacecraft and astronauts.
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Concept Domain Formulated Year Proposed ByDiscovered and described by physicist James Van Allen, who published an article on the belts in 1958 following analysis of Explorer 1 data. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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