Hubble And The Bermuda Triangle Of Space (Video And Photos)

(N.Morgan) There is a mysterious region in space known as the South Atlantic Anomaly. South Atlantic Anomaly is an area where the Earth’s inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth’s surface dipping down to an altitude of 200 km (124 mi). This leads to an increased flux of energetic particles in this region and exposes orbiting satellites to higher-than-usual levels of radiation.

The effect is caused by the non-concentricity of the Earth and its magnetic dipole, and the SAA is the near-Earth region where the Earth’s magnetic field is weakest relative to an idealized Earth-centered dipole field.

In the video below, is the incredible story of what happens when the Hubble happens upon this strange and dangerous region. When satellites pass through this area they are bombarded with swarms of intensely high energy particles. This can produce “glitches” in astronomical data, malfunctioning of on-board electronics, and has even shut down unprepared spacecraft for weeks!

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