Univ. of Col: Star Trek-like invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth

[Ichingcarpenter]

A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered an invisible shield some 7,200 miles above Earth that blocks so-called “killer electrons,” which whip around the planet at near-light speed and have been known to threaten astronauts, fry satellites and degrade space systems during intense solar storms.

The barrier to the particle motion was discovered in the Van Allen radiation belts, two doughnut-shaped rings above Earth that are filled with high-energy electrons and protons, said Distinguished Professor Daniel Baker, director of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Held in place by Earth’s magnetic field, the Van Allen radiation belts periodically swell and shrink in response to incoming energy disturbances from the sun.

As the first significant discovery of the space age, the Van Allen radiation belts were detected in 1958 by Professor James Van Allen and his team at the University of Iowa and were found to be comprised of an inner and outer belt extending up to 25,000 miles above Earth’s surface. In 2013, Baker -- who received his doctorate under Van Allen -- led a team that used the twin Van Allen Probes launched by NASA in 2012 to discover a third, transient “storage ring” between the inner and outer Van Allen radiation belts that seems to come and go with the intensity of space weather.

The latest mystery revolves around an “extremely sharp” boundary at the inner edge of the outer belt at roughly 7,200 miles in altitude that appears to block the ultrafast electrons from breeching the shield and moving deeper towards Earth’s atmosphere.

“It’s almost like theses electrons are running into a glass wall in space,” said Baker, the study’s lead author. “Somewhat like the shields created by force fields on Star Trek that were used to repel alien weapons, we are seeing an invisible shield blocking these electrons. It’s an extremely puzzling phenomenon.”


http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2014/11/26/star-trek-invisible-shield-found-thousands-miles-above-earth


?itok=DR3685ts


Illustration by Andy Kale, University of Alberta.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I bet that once the mechanism of this is understood

it will have major applicability for orbiting space vehicles.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Also long distance human space travel

which is a concern for any manned Mars expeditions.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Definitely!

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. I wonder if this specific type of belt is only earthly?

I know that Van Allen radiation belts exist on other planets and moons in the solar system that have a magnetic field that is powerful enough to sustain a radiation belt. However, many of these radiation belts have been poorly mapped. The Voyager Program (namely Voyager 2) only nominally confirmed the existence of similar belts on Uranus and Neptune.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt

But this is a new finding and we don't know yet about the other
planets and moons.

If Europa has one it might give extra protection from Jupiter's field that might give a shield for life.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. When it comes to physics

I don't think anything is limited to a specific body unless that body has a highly unique set of conditions. If scientists can determine what influences are tied to this, then they can certainly work to reproduce it, even if on a "micro" (atomic) scale. It seems as if it's almost like an interface layer (stable one) between 2 disparate layers, perhaps similar to one that forms between immiscible liquids or those with very different specific gravities.

[lovemydog]

2. whoah