Scientists are still learning more about the Van Allen belts. In 2013, researchers were studying how their electrons approach astonishing speeds, near the speed of light. In 2014, a paper was...

The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others may be temporarily created.

The Van Allen belts or other areas in space may reach enormous temperatures if you examine how fast the particles are moving, but if there's only a handful of particles per cubic meter, there's barely any energy there to transfer into your spacecraft.

Therefore in 1969, the Van Allen radiation belts could have had a maximum inclination of 34.9° (23.5°+11.4°) with respect to the ecliptic (Fig. 5). Fig. 5: Schematics of radiation belts at...

Located beyond low-Earth orbit, these radiation belts were discovered in 1958 by astrophysicist James Van Allen who helped uncover the key to enabling exploration of the outer solar system. Van Allen calculated that it was possible to fly through the weaker regions of radiation to reach outer space.