May’s solar storm created a new Van Allen belt

Could’s solar storm created a brand new ring round Earth

Bear in mind the massive solar storm on Could 10 and 11, 2024, that sparked a serious disruption in Earth’s magnetic discipline and thereby created widespread auroras? It was an X2.9 flare on the sun, throughout a time of excessive sun exercise general (much like this week!). On X (previously Twitter) on July 31, 2024, @NASASun reported that very same solar storm additionally created a brand new, momentary Van Allen radiation belt. It’s a brand new ring of charged, high-energy particles encircling Earth.

NASA’s Colorado Inside Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) CubeSat found the brand new belt, which might final from months to years. The brand new belt is sandwiched between the already-existing internal and outer Van Allen radiation belts.

Van Allen belts got here with the House Age

The Van Allen belts had been one of many first discoveries of the space age, which started in 1957 with the first Sputnik launch. A NASA story known as A Short History of Earth’s Radiation Belts defined:

House scientist James Van Allen and his workforce on the College of Iowa had been the primary to find the radiation belts, now additionally known as the Van Allen belts. For some, this scientific discovery was virtually a postscript to an important space age first: the experiment that found the belts flew aboard the very first American satellite, Explorer 1. Explorer 1 launched into Earth’s orbit on a Jupiter C missile from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1958. It carried a micrometeorite detector and a cosmic ray experiment – a Geiger counter connected to a miniature tape recorder — designed by Van Allen and his graduate college students.

Information from Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 (launched March 26, 1958) had been utilized by the Iowa group to detect the existence of charged particle radiation trapped by Earth’s magnetic discipline — the internal radiation belt. Pioneer 3 (launched 6 December 1958) and Explorer IV (launched July 26, 1958) additionally carried devices designed and constructed by Dr. Van Allen. These spacecraft supplied Van Allen extra knowledge that led to the invention of a second, outer radiation belt encircling the internal belt.

Can we journey by the Van Allen belts?

The Van Allen belts encompass trapped high-energy radiation. They kind donut-shape rings round our planet, trapped by our magnetosphere.

There are two ever-present Van Allen radiation belts circling Earth. The internal belt begins about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) up and extends to eight,000 miles (12,800 km). The radiation is a results of interactions of cosmic rays with Earth’s ambiance. Astronauts who journey to the Worldwide House Station orbit under the internal belt.

However the outer belt extends from about 12,000 to 25,000 miles (19,300 to 40,200 km) above Earth. This ring of radiation is fabricated from trapped particles that got here from the sun. So astronauts touring to the moon and again should journey by each radiation belts, twice, as soon as going outward and as soon as coming again. Some conspiracy theories in regards to the Apollo moon landings declare that the Van Allen radiation belts made it not possible for astronauts to journey to the moon. However the Apollo astronauts had comparatively low publicity to radiation from the belts, as a result of they spent solely a brief flying by them. NASA had decided {that a} spacecraft might go by the belts in 52 minutes with only 13 rads of exposure, which was thought-about protected.

It’s mentioned that James Van Allen him, the scientist for whom the belts are named, wrote a letter confirming that claims of deadly radiation publicity in the course of the Apollo missions had been “nonsense.”

So the Van Allen belts don’t forestall people from touring into space. And, the truth is, they assist shield Earth from lethal radiation from solar storms and the solar wind that may in any other case attain Earth.

When will we subsequent journey by the Van Allen belts?

A human has not encountered any of the Van Allen belts in additional than 50 years. The final time was throughout Apollo 17, in 1972.

However some upcoming missions will convey people to or by the Van Allen belts. The Polaris Dawn mission hopes to succeed in the outer fringe of the internal Van Allen belt.

And Artemis – the mission that can carry the primary people again the moon – will journey by at the very least two of the belts, and probably three relying on how lengthy the brand new belt persists. The following Artemis take a look at mission – Artemis 2 – will carry a 4-person crew to the moon, to circle round it and return, probably as quickly as September 2025.

A couple of yr later, the Artemis 3 mission will land a crew on the moon, together with he first girl and first particular person of colour. Will the brand new Van Allen belt survive till then?

Backside line: Could’s solar storm added a brand new ring – a third Van Allen radiation belt – to Earth. This new Van Allen belt may final from months to years. Will it’s there when the Artemis 2 mission passes by the Van Allen belts, carrying the primary astronauts again to the moon in additional than 50 years?