May’s solar storm created a new Van Allen belt
May's solar storm added a new ring - a 3rd Van Allen radiation belt - to Earth. This new Van Allen belt might last from months to years.
The post May’s solar storm created a new Van Allen belt first appeared on EarthSky.
May’s solar storm created a new belt around Earth
Remember the big solar storm on May 10 and 11, 2024, which sparked a major disruption in Earth’s magnetic field and thereby created widespread auroras? It featured an X2.9 flare on the sun, during a time of high sun activity overall (much like this week). On X (formerly Twitter) on July 31, 2024, @NASASun reported that the big May solar storm also created a new, temporary Van Allen radiation belt. It’s a new ring of charged, high-energy particles encircling Earth.
NASA’s Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) CubeSat discovered the new belt, which could last from months to years. The new belt is sandwiched between the already-existing inner and outer Van Allen radiation belts.
Remember the big solar storm in May?
Scientists have just discovered that, in addition to creating spellbinding auroras, the storm also made a new temporary ring of charged, high-energy particles encircling Earth. pic.twitter.com/fzogKWGH8X
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 31, 2024
Van Allen belts came with the Space Age
The Van Allen belts were one of the first discoveries of the space age, which began in 1957 with the first Sputnik launch. A NASA story called A Short History of Earth’s Radiation Belts explained:
Space scientist James Van Allen and his team at the University of Iowa were the first to discover the radiation belts, now also referred to as the Van Allen belts. For some, this scientific discovery was almost a postscript to a crucial space age first: the experiment that discovered 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 attached to a miniature tape recorder — designed by Van Allen and his graduate students.
Data from Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 (launched March 26, 1958) were used by the Iowa group to detect the existence of charged particle radiation trapped by Earth’s magnetic field — the inner radiation belt. Pioneer 3 (launched 6 December 1958) and Explorer IV (launched July 26, 1958) also carried instruments designed and built by Dr. Van Allen. These spacecraft provided Van Allen additional data that led to the discovery of a second, outer radiation belt encircling the inner belt.
Can we travel through the Van Allen belts?
The Van Allen belts consist of trapped high-energy radiation. They form donut-shape rings around our planet, trapped by our magnetosphere.
There are two ever-present Van Allen radiation belts circling Earth. The inner belt starts about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) up and extends to 8,000 miles (12,800 km). The radiation is a result of interactions of cosmic rays with Earth’s atmosphere. Astronauts who travel to the International Space Station orbit below the inner belt.
But 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 made of trapped particles that came from the sun. So astronauts traveling to the moon and back must travel through both radiation belts, twice, once going outward and once coming back. Some conspiracy theories about the Apollo moon landings claim that the Van Allen radiation belts made it impossible for astronauts to travel to the moon. But the Apollo astronauts had relatively low exposure to radiation from the belts, because they spent only a short flying through them. NASA had determined that a spacecraft could pass through the belts in 52 minutes with only 13 rads of exposure, which was considered safe.
It’s said that James Van Allen him, the scientist for whom the belts are named, wrote a letter confirming that claims of fatal radiation exposure during the Apollo missions were “nonsense.”
So the Van Allen belts do not prevent humans from traveling into space. And, in fact, they help protect Earth from deadly radiation from solar storms and the solar wind that would otherwise reach Earth.
When will we next travel through the Van Allen belts?
A human has not encountered any of the Van Allen belts in more than 50 years. The last time was during Apollo 17, in 1972.
But some upcoming missions will bring humans to or through the Van Allen belts. The Polaris Dawn mission hopes to reach the outer edge of the inner Van Allen belt.
And Artemis – the mission that will carry the first humans back the moon – will travel through at least two of the belts, and possibly three depending on how long the new belt persists. The next Artemis test mission – Artemis 2 – will carry a 4-person crew to the moon, to circle around it and return, possibly as soon as September 2025.
About a year later, the Artemis 3 mission will land a crew on the moon, including he first woman and first person of color. Will the new Van Allen belt survive until then?
More about the Van Allen Belts and why they’re important to space travel: https://t.co/AOdf5oF6vu https://t.co/fSHB66EU5q
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 31, 2024
Bottom line: May’s solar storm added a new ring – a 3rd Van Allen radiation belt – to Earth. This new Van Allen belt might last from months to years. Will it be there when the Artemis 2 mission passes through the Van Allen belts, carrying the first astronauts back to the moon in more than 50 years?
The post May’s solar storm created a new Van Allen belt first appeared on EarthSky.