¶ Van Allen Belt
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Index Entry
Van Allen Belt:
"If our space vehicle Earth
Were nearer to the Sun,
We would be incinerated
By our energy-supplying mothership.
To compound the advantage of vast distance
As protection against Sun’s incinerating us
We have the Van Allen belts; of which we learned
Only in the last few years.
These belts are the outermost
Of the biosphere’s spherical mantles.
Within these Van Allens we have
The ionic veil surrounding our spaceship.
The Van Allen belts intercept the radiation
Which would kill a naked man positioned outward of those belts.
The Van Allen belts
Diffuse the radiation, by refraction, to below lethal level."
¶ Citations
- BRAIN & MIND, pp. 108-109 May '72
