Tag Archives: radiation

A strange third band of radiation has been discovered circling the Earth, according to NASA, upending a long-standing scientific theory about how charged particles interact with our planet. The band, discovered in September 2012, is no longer present, although NASA says scientists spent the better part of two months observing the radiation band before it disappeared. The discovery was largely the result of a pair of NASA probes launched in 2012 to collect data on Earth’s Van Allen Belts. According to the space agency, the pair of probes discovered the strange third band of radiation just four days into the mission. Scientists say the pair of probes transmitted back data that seemed to reveal a third belt of high-energy particles between the planet’s inner and outer radiation bands. By the end of 2012, however, the band seemed to disappear. Now, NASA says it has data that seems to indicate the band was “annihilated” by a …