Giant donut-shaped swaths of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles surround Earth. James Van Allen, a physicist at the University of Iowa, discovered these radiation belts in ...

To better study the Van Allen belts, NASA launched the Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes) mission on 30 August 2012 to investigate both rings. It comprises two ...

When NASA scientists launched twin spacecraft to probe the Van Allen radiation belts last summer, they were expecting to study two rings of high-energy particles circling Earth. Instead they found ...

Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear.

Unexpectedly, the probes revealed a new radiation belt surrounding Earth, a third one made of super-high-energy electrons embedded in the outer Van Allen belt about 19,100 to 22,300 kilometers ...

Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite (launched in 1958, three months after the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik), found a big surprise in space: the Van Allen belts, rings of radiation that to this day are ...

Particle detection instruments aboard the twin Van Allen Probes, launched Aug. 30, quickly revealed to scientists the existence of this new, transient, third radiation belt.

On Aug. 30, 2012, NASA launched the twin Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes) to study the belts. Between Sept. 3 and 6, the probes’ instruments detected particles ...

James Van Allen, one of the pioneers of America's space program who gave his name to the belts of radiation that encircle Earth, died Wednesday. He was 91. Van Allen died of heart failure at the ...

Unexpectedly, the probes revealed a new radiation belt surrounding Earth, a third one made of super-high-energy electrons embedded in the outer Van Allen belt about 11,900 to 13,900 miles (19,100 ...

A ring of radiation previously unknown to science fleetingly surrounded Earth last year before being virtually annihilated by a powerful interplanetary shock wave, scientists say. NASA's twin Van ...