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James A. Van Allen - Dies at 91
Diamonddavej writes "The New York Times reports that the respected astrophysicist, James A. Van Allen, died yesterday at the age of 91. Apparently the fellow regularly worked at his office/laboratory up until a month ago. Prof. Van Allen team designed the Geiger counter that flew aboard Americas first orbiting satellite, Explorer 1. It detected unexpectedly intense levels of radiation caused by energetic particles trapped in the Earth magnetic field, the magnetosphere. The belts of radiation were mapped and characterised by later missions and were named the Van Allen belts in honour of their discoverer."
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - respected astrophysicist, James A. Van Allan was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
... has Netcraft confirmed this?
Trolling is a art,
NASA looses the tapes of the moon landing and Mr. Van Allen passes away. If I remember correctly the Van Allen belts figure prominently in several anti-moon landing conspiracy theories.
Gentlemen, let the speculation begin!
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Weird, I didn't know this but according to Wikipedia, the number of Van Allen belts has tripled in the last three months.
Prof. Van Allen team designed the Geiger counter that flew aboard Americas first orbiting satellite, Explorer 1. It detected unexpectedly intense levels of radiation caused by energetic particles trapped in the Earth magnetic field, the magnetosphere.
Unfortunately for astronauts Reed Richards, Susan Richards, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm, NASA hadn't thought to send up an unmanned probe first.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Sounds more like the threat of a Bond villain than an action of the United States government.
An increasingly difficult distinction to make...
Blank until
I challenge your Van Allen Belt to a battle with my Foreigner Belt.
The Rockoons - that would be a great name for a rock band!
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Poor, poor raccoons. Doing that crazy stuff, being shot up in rockets. Did they at least enjoy the orange juice?
You can't handle the truth.
Nah, it's simple.. the Bond villians always want the world leaders to help them reach their goals, aka multilateral cooperation.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Announcer: Astronomers from Tacoma to Vladivostok have just reported an ionic disturbance in the vicinity of the Van Allen Belt. Scientists are recommending that necessary precautions be taken.
Homer: [scoffs] Eggheads. What do they know?
snpp