This newly released six-minute video details the mysterious region known as the South Atlantic Anomaly – an area where the Earth’s inner Van Allen radiation belt comes close to the Earth’s surface, increasing the flux of energetic particles and exposes orbiting satellites to higher-than-usual levels of radiation.
Hubblecast 77: Hubble and the Bermuda Triangle of Space
This Hubblecast tells the story of what happens to Hubble in the mysterious region known as the South Atlantic Anomaly. 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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