Our planet is nestled in the center of two immense, concentric doughnuts of powerful radiation: the Van Allen radiation belts, which harbor swarms of charged particles that are trapped by Earth’s ...

In 1958, James Van Allen discovered far fewer cosmic rays than expected using a cosmic-ray detector and suggested that a belt of strong radiation may have damaged the device. The belts were therefore ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpaceX's trailblazing Polaris Dawn mission will soon begin its daring trek into Earth orbit — and ...

Earth’s magnetosphere, the region of space dominated by Earth’s magnetic field, protects our planet from the harsh battering of the solar wind. Like a protective shield, the magnetosphere absorbs and ...

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 ...

Could a century-old military communication method be quietly protecting our planet from deadly space radiation? NASA’s Van Allen Probes, launched in 2012 to study Earth’s radiation belts, stumbled ...

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them. Elon Musk believes in the future of Mars. He wants to ...

What looks like a red rash on this image are "hot spots" caused by heat from fires sensed by the orbiting Suomi NPP satellite. But wait. What's that odd dot off the coast of Brazil in the middle of ...

A discovery was unveiled after the rare G4 geomagnetic solar storm in May, when the aurora borealis, commonly known as the northern lights, reached as far south as Texas. “Scientists have just ...

Using data from a NASA satellite, a team of scientists led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and involving the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered a massive particle ...

Not all that far above your head is a particle accelerator that would put the Large Hadron Collider to shame. There, charged particles, some carried in by the solar wind, some created by cosmic rays, ...

Private spaceflight missions like Polaris Dawn "start to provide us with information that otherwise we wouldn't have." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.