By Steve Bryan
High above Earth’s atmosphere, electrons whiz past us close to the speed of light. They streak around the planet in a mere five minutes bombarding anything in their path. Exposure to their high-energy radiation can wreak havoc on satellite electronics, and pose serious health risks to astronauts. According to a paper published in the November 27, 2014 issue of Nature, a University of Colorado-led team has made a unique discovery: an invisible shield 7,200 miles above Earth blocks these “killer electrons” from damaging Earth.
According to Professor Daniel Baker, director of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the invisible shield is contained within two doughnut-shaped rings around the Earth that are themselves filled with high-energy electrons and protons. These rings are called the Van Allen radiation belts.
The team originally thought the highly charged electrons would drift downward into the upper atmosphere and be eliminated through interaction with air molecules. Instead, “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 … 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.”
A phenomenon termed “plasmaspheric hiss” — very low-frequency electromagnetic waves in the Earth’s upper atmosphere that sound like static, or white noise — seems to deflect incoming electrons, causing them to collide with neutral gas atoms and disappear. This natural, impenetrable barrier keeps these high-energy electrons from the Earth’s surface.
“It’s a very unusual, extraordinary, and pronounced phenomenon,” says John Foster, associate director of MIT’s Haystack Observatory. “What this tells us is if you parked a satellite or an orbiting space station with humans just inside this impenetrable barrier, you would expect them to have much longer lifetimes. That’s a good thing to know.”
Perhaps the implication of the scripture verse in Psalms is broader than anyone had imagined: “But you, Lord, are a shield around me…” (Psalm 3:3).
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