ScienceCasts: The Radiation Belt Storm Probes
August 30, 2012
Most spacecraft try to avoid the Van Allen Belts, two doughnut-shaped regions around Earth filled with “killer electrons.” This morning NASA launched two heavily-shielded spacecraft directly into the belts. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes are on a two-year mission to study the Van Allen Belts and to unravel the mystery of their unpredictability.
credit: NASA
Topics:
Technology Internet, Space, Spaceflight, Space plasmas, Environment, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Radiation Belt Storm Probes, Health threat from cosmic rays, Geomagnetism, James Van Allen, Van Allen radiation belt, Astronomy, Io, Radiation
