The earth is apparently ringed by two radiation belts, not just one. At a Washington meeting of the American Astronautical Society last week, Cosmic Ray Expert James Van Allen of State University of Iowa reported what the Army's Pioneer III moon probe discovered about the high-speed electrons (or protons) that gyrate in the earth's magnetic field. The probe's two tiny Geiger counters worked fine all the way out to the 63,000-mile peak and back again, traversing two distinct, doughnut-shaped radiation belts. The inner belt begins 1,400 miles above the surface and extends to...
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