• ESA’s Juice spacecraft flies through Van Allen radiation belts

    ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft successfully passed through Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, completing a significant achievement in its mission to explore Jupiter. The mission, led by ESA, tested the RADiation-hard Electron Monitor (RADEM), designed to measure high-energy particles in severe settings.

  • Van Allen radiation belts during an extremely rare solar wind event

    Earth is embedded in the always-expanding atmosphere of the Sun, called the solar wind, which blows past planets to the edge of the Solar System. Solar wind is typically supersonic, faster than the speed of sound, and when it encounters planets, like Earth, a shock…

  • NASA’s Van Allen Probes broaden view on the shape of Van Allen Belts

    NASA's Van Allen Probes enabled the scientists to gather a more precise picture of the structure of Van Allen Belts that shield our planet from the solar radiation. New research shows their shape varies depending on the energy of charged particles constituting…

  • Van Allen probes spot an impenetrable barrier in space

    Van Allen radiation belts have been found to contain a nearly impenetrable barrier that prevents the fastest, most energetic electrons from reaching Earth.The Van Allen belts are a collection of charged particles, gathered in place by Earth’s magnetic field. They

  • Van Allen Probes reveal a new radiation belt around Earth

    NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission has discovered a previously unknown third radiation belt around Earth, revealing the existence of unexpected structures and processes within these hazardous regions of space.Previous observations of Earth’s Van Allen belts have long

  • Antiproton ring found around Earth

    Antiprotons appear to ring the Earth, confined by the planet's magnetic field lines. The antimatter, which may persist for minutes or hours before annihilating with normal matter, could in theory be used to fuel ultra-efficient rockets of the future.Charged particle