Explorer 1 and the Van Allen radiation belts
Explorer 1 y los cinturones de radiación de Van Allen
- Date
- 1958 · confidence high
- Place
- Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States
- Credited to
- James Van Allen and JPL (Explorer 1)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The first US satellite, launched on 31 January 1958 with a Van Allen Geiger counter, recorded unexpected radiation that, with Explorer 3, revealed two regions of particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field.
The Soviets might have detected them earlier: Sputnik 2 and 3 carried sensors, but their data were recorded in fragments and not interpreted. Sergey Vernov and Aleksandr Chudakov investigated trapped radiation in parallel.
What it led to
- birth of magnetospheric physics
- radiation shielding design for satellites and crewed craft
- the Van Allen Probes (2012) to study the belts