Space: Robin Hanson reveals what ‘should scare you’
The earth’s magnetic field has a weak spot ‘the size of the continental USA’ that hovers over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean. Scientists say we are safe from the effects on Earth, but satellites are not so lucky – if they go through the anomaly, their radiation is bombarded “more intensely than anywhere else in an orbit”. The region is known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), or “the Bermuda Triangle of space”, and is at the point where the Earth’s magnetic field is particularly weak.
This means that particles of cosmic sunbeams are not held back to the same extent as elsewhere above the planet.
As a result, sun rays reach as far as 124 miles to the earth’s surface – within a series of probes in the Low Earth orbit (LEO).
John Tarduno, professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester, explained: ‘I do not like its nickname, but in that region the lower geomagnetic field intensity ultimately leads to a greater vulnerability of satellites to energetic particles, to the point that spacecraft damage can occur if they traverse the area.
“Satellites moving through this region will therefore experience higher amounts of radiation to the point that damage can occur.
The ISS was affected by the radiation (Image: GETTY)
The earth is protected by the magnetic field (Image: GETTY)
‘Think of an electric discharge or arc.
“With more incoming radiation, a satellite can be charged and arcs associated with it can cause serious damage.”
Normally, the Earth’s magnetic field is protected at an altitude of between 620 and 37,000 miles above the planet’s surface.
But the low altitude of the radiation focal point places it within the orbit of certain satellites, which are bombarded by protons exceeding the energy of 10 million electron volts.
In the early days of the ISS, the anomaly would crash the astronauts’ computers, forcing space agencies to shut down their onboard systems.
Astronauts were also affected by the SAA.
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Part of Earth’s magnetic field is weak (Image: GETTY)
Some have reported seeing strange white lights flickering before their eyes, and since then steps have been taken to protect astronauts.
Strong shielding is on the most occupied parts of the ISS, such as the gallery and the sleeping area, to reduce the amount of radiation to which astronauts are exposed.
Astronauts also carry dosimeters, which are devices that measure their personal exposure to ionizing radiation in real time, and send out an alert when they reach dangerous levels.
The Hubble Telescope, which passes through the SAA ten times a day and spends about 15 percent of its time there, cannot collect astronomical data during these moments.
Failure to take these measures is likely to result in system failure.
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ISS astronauts experienced the consequences in the early days (Image: GETTY)
Dr Tarduno added: “Placing equipment in ‘safe mode’ means limiting operations that are more sensitive to radiation.”
Damage caused by the SAA can also be very costly, as evidenced by the area where the Japanese satellite Hitomi crashed on Earth.
Hitomi, aka ASTRO-H, was commissioned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to study extremely energetic processes in the universe.
Just over a month after its launch in February 2016, its operators lost contact and the satellite broke into several pieces.
Experts later discovered that the problem was due to the spacecraft’s inertia reference unit which reported a rotation of 21.7 degrees per hour when the spacecraft was actually stable.
When the attitude control system tried to counteract the non-existent turn, a sequence of events caused it to break.
Hubble must turn off during anomaly travel (Image: GETTY)
If the operators could detect the error in real time, they would be able to correct it, but it happened while the satellite was traveling through SAA, and communication was thus lost.
The unfortunate saga cost JAXA about $ 273 million (£ 210 million) and three years of prepared studies.
And that could lead to more problems in the future.
A recent forecast by NASA scientist Dr. Weijia Kuang and Professor Andrew Tangborn of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, shows that the deviation is not just migrating westward.
In five years, one area could grow up to ten percent compared to 2019 values.
Dr Kuang said that the dent can also tear, or that another weak spot can independently emerge and bite into it.
Julien Aubert, a researcher at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, said more research is needed.
She said in January: “Just like weather forecasts, you can’t predict the evolution of the core after a few decades.”