Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that looks something like the field you see around a toy magnet when you use iron filings to make it stand out better. You have probably seen this demonstrated in a science class. Earth's magnetic field is shaped something like a comet, with a long, invisible, tail of magnetism stretching millions of miles beyond the moon on the opposite side of the Sun. This magnetic field can act like a bottle, trapping fast-moving charged particles within an invisible magnetic prison. The particles are so numerous that they form into donut-shaped clouds with the Earth at the center, and stretching thousands of miles above Earth's surface above the equator. Scientists call these the 'van Allen Radiation Belts' because they were first discovered by Dr. James van Allen using one of the first satellites launched by NASA in 1958.
Earth isn't the only place you will find radiation belts. The planet Jupiter has belts that are much larger that ours. Radiation belts can also be found around exotic stars called pulsars.
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