Word: belt
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...belt, Scientist Van Allen told the American Physical Society at Chicago, seems to be a great doughnut made chiefly of fast-moving electrons and protons circulating around the earth on both sides of its magnetic equator (see diagram). Only the lower parts have been observed with any accuracy. The upper limits are deduced from knowledge of the magnetic field. The Air Force's Pioneer, soaring far past the 1,400-mile level reached by the Explorers, confirmed "tentatively and partially" that the lethal radiation drops off sharply around 7,000 miles...
...Allen thinks most of the particles come from the sun, shot out by eruptions and trapped by the earth's magnetic field. The strength of the radiation belt is probably variable, like the amount of water in a leaky bucket that is filled at irregular intervals. When the sun is quiet, the particles in the belt gradually leak down to the atmosphere and disappear perhaps causing the aurora. The belt grows weaker and weaker until a new transfusion of particles from the sun makes it strong again...
...over the magnetic poles is almost radiation-free. Obvious conclusion: the space ports of the future may have to be in far northern Canada or Antarctica, where men can soar into space through the escape zones over the magnetic poles, thus eluding the lethal hazards of the Van Allen belt...
...Belt of the Muse. In moments of introspection Musician Engel thinks of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. "That genius," he says, "wrote to order. He had no time for the muse to belt him." If the muse has failed to lay a glove on Engel, it is chiefly because he moves too fast. He has presided over the pit orchestras of roughly 130 Broadway productions, headed an esoteric organization called the Madrigal Singers, written reams of articles and a bag of books, including a five-volume study of European music entitled Renaissance to Baroque...
...Volcanoes Above Us, by Norman Lewis. The unquiet sport of baiting Quiet Americans gains another fictional recruit as Author Lewis uses a Guatemalan setting to deliver a scurrilous poke at Uncle Sam below the banana belt...