NASA's Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space

Two donuts of seething radiation that surround Earth, called the Van Allen radiation belts, have been found to contain a nearly impenetrable barrier that prevents the fastest, most energetic electrons from reaching Earth.

Read more: 1.usa.gov/11v7nUW

Caption: This is a visualization of the radiation belts with confined charged particles (blue & yellow) and plasmapause boundary (blue-green surface)

Caption: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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