Idaho Skies Transcript for November 5th and 6th

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for November 5th and 6th. We’re your hosts, Paul…

RACHEL
…and Rachel.

PAUL
Last week was the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 2.

RACHEL
Sputnik 2 is best known as the second spacecraft to reach Earth orbit and for its passenger, the dog Laika. But did you known that it was almost famous for discovering a dangerous belt of radiation? We call this donut of radiation encircling Earth the Van Allen Radiation Belts. It gets its name from Dr. James Van Allen of the University of Iowa and they were the first major discovery of the Space Age.

PAUL
Physicists hypothesized years earlier that Earth’s dipole magnetic field might trap charged particles emitted by the sun. If so, then the concentration of the trapped radiation could grow high enough to become dangerous to organisms. It wasn’t until 1958 and the launch of the American Explorer 1 that the radiation was first detected. The designer of the geiger counters used to detection this radiation was Dr. James Van Allen.

RACHEL
Early satellites determined that there were actually two belts of trapped radiation circling Earth. The belts were tipped relative to the North and South Poles because our magnetic north and south poles don’t align with Earth’s spin axis. The belts begin 300 miles above Earth and end at around 36,000 miles higher. In the middle, between the two belts, is a safe region where radiation levels are much lower. Now you might be asking just what does this have to do with Sputnik 2?

PAUL
Well, Sputnik 2 carried geiger counters and passed through the radiation belts during its very elliptical orbit around Earth. Specifically, Sputnik 2 passed through the far northern portion of the belt, but only when it was out of range of Soviet telemetry stations. Since the Soviets didn’t explain how to decode the satellite’s telemetry, tracking stations in other parts of the world did not know how to interpret the data. Had the Soviets shared their telemetry format with the rest of the world, we could be calling this region of radiation the Vernov Belt today. 

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 5th and 6th of November.

PAUL
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @IdahoSkies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

RACHEL
…and Rachel.

PAUL
Dark skies and bright stars.