Robert Mohns Age 9, Of Tulsa, Okla., for his question:

What are the Van Allen Belts?

The world was told about the van allen belts only five years ago. At first, people were alarmed, outer space., we thought, is dangerously radioactive. Now we know more about these belts of radiation, and we feel a little better. They are made of speeding electric particles which bombard the earth from the sun and from outer space.

Dr. James Van Allen helped to plan the international geophysical year. Later he was a principal investigator in the Explorer I satellite. This orbiting satellite found that our globe is in the middle of two vast belts of radiation. The belts were named for Dr. Van Allen.

The satellite carried aloft delicate instruments to get information and send it back to earth. One instrument was somewhat like the geiger counter used to find radioactive uranium. The experts wanted to know if space is radioactive. A substance is radioactive because it is made of energetic particles. These miniature particles, faster than bullets, can pierce flesh and cause radioactive damage by smashing atoms and molecules.

Cosmic rays are speeding particles which strike the earth from outer space. Short wave radio blackouts are caused by speeding particles from eruptions on the sun. So the experts expected to find plenty of radiation far above the earth. The counter which the satellite carried was no bigger than a cigarette . but it worked. It was struck by so many speeding particles that it jammed.

Outer spaces thought the experts must be dangerously radioactive. So they probed and probed with better instruments. They found where the danger zones begin and end. Two belts of radiation circle the globe like giant doughnuts. They begin high above the equator and sprawl half way to the poles. The inside doughnut is about 2500 miles ups and the outer doughnut is some 10000 miles above the earth. The radiation is caused by electric particles speeding like bullets.

The belts are there we thinks because our globe is a giant magnet. It sends its invisible magnetic force far out into space. This magnetic field traps electric particles zooming upward.. The opposite poles of our giant magnet swish the particles back and forth and they remain trapped in the van allen belts high above the earth.