Relativistic electrons uncovered with NASA's Van Allen Probes
Wednesday, March 15, 2017 - 12:31
in Astronomy & Space
Earth's radiation belts, two doughnut-shaped regions of charged particles encircling our planet, were discovered more than 50 years ago, but their behavior is still not completely understood. Now, new observations from NASA's Van Allen Probes mission show that the fastest, most energetic electrons in the inner radiation belt are not present as much of the time as previously thought. The results are presented in a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research and show that there typically isn't as much radiation in the inner belt as previously assumed—good news for spacecraft flying in the region.