Untimely deaths of satellites are blamed on extremely hasty electrons around the Earth, and scientists think they know now how these electrons gained their speed.
Electrons within belts of radiation that surrounds Earth are energized by electromagnetic waves around the planet. This new information could aid scientists in learning to better protect satellites and avoid damage from wayward charged particles, according to NASA’s twin Van Allen probes’ newly collected data.
Scientists hypothesize that a number of electrons enter from outside the radiation belt, thus, creating a huge rise in the heart of the belts. However, the new research proves that it isn’t always like that. Geoffrey Reeves, lead author of the new paper issued in the journal Science this week said that Electrons are actually accelerated by electromagnetic waves within the belts.
“Electrons — in their motion through the magnetosphere and through the radiation belts — one of the motions they have is they spiral around and around the magnetic field. I think of it like a tetherball. The pole is the magnetic field, and the electrons are going around and around. What the electromagnetic waves do is, they hit that tetherball — and if you're hitting it at the right time, each time it goes around, then it goes faster and faster and faster,” Reeves, a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, told SPACE.com.
The speedy electrons in the radiation belts can injure spacecrafts orbiting around Earth. Many satellite malfunctions caused by radiation belt electrons are often grave. The charged electrons can go through a satellite’s system at high speeds and inflict disaster on the electrical systems within spacecraft.
These electrons are the fastest things the earth creates naturally. They move at more than 99 percent the speed of light and that is vigorous enough for it to go through the skin of satellite, thus, allowing electrons implant themselves in the electronics in the satellite.
“When they build up too much, you can get discharges inside the satellite, and the satellite either malfunctions or sometimes totally fails," Reeves added.
These findings are part of Reeves preliminary investigation into the electrons of the Van Allen radiation belts. He looks forward in tracing the origin of the electron’s acceleration and the very kind of electromagnetic wave charging electrons at a definite frequency.
Scientists and engineers can better create a more robust spacecraft in the future with the help of that information.
