The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind. The particles are captured by and held around a planet by that planet’s magnetic field. It surrounds Earth, containing a nearly impenetrable barrier that prevents the fastest, most energetic electrons from reaching Earth.

I did not understand the true nature of the Van Allen radiation belts when I dove into Dave McGowan’s Moondoggie series. They are far more than something we have to pass through on our way to outer space. If that were the case, we could merely take off from the poles to bypass them. Their true structure represents something, that when fully grasped, not only imparts the understanding that we never went to the Moon, but that even today we are bound in lower Earth orbit (LEO) in our space exploration (the reason that the Space Shuttles never went beyond LEO). This understanding comes from two sources. Here’s McGowan:

“In the very same NASA post that discusses Moon rocks being constantly bombarded with absurdly high levels of radiation, another curious admission can be found: “meteoroids constantly bombard the Moon.” Our old friend from NASA, David McKay, explains that “Apollo moon rocks are peppered with tiny craters from meteoroid impacts.” NASA then explains that that “could only happen to rocks from a planet with little or no atmosphere … like the Moon.””

Continue reading “The Van Allen Belts” →