James A. Van Allen - Dies at 91

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday August 10, 2006 @08:06AM from the ironically-wore-suspenders dept.

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."

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What respect - at least learn to spell by CorporalKlinger · 2006-08-10 08:10 · Score: 2, Insightful

What respect the author must have for Mr. Van Allen... he can't even spell his name right.
Re:Will be remembered for two things by Anonymous Coward · 2006-08-10 08:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

...until such robot probes, equipped with radiation detectors, would have proven that he was wrong.
Space Aged by Doc+Ruby · 2006-08-10 08:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

"Space Age" used to mean "so new it's futuristic". Now it's starting to mean "ancient history".

And all we got is lots more crappy TV.

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