NASA’s Van Allen Probes Find Human-Made Bubble Shrouding Earth

Humans have long been shaping Earth’s landscape, but now scientists know we can shape our near-space environment as well. A certain type of communications -- very low frequency, or VLF, radio communications -- have been found to interact with particles in space, affecting how and where they move. At times, these interactions can create a barrier around Earth against natural high energy particle radiation in space. These results, part of a comprehensive paper on human-induced space weather, were recently published in Space Science Reviews. Read more: Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein, Krystofer Kim and Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith Music: Alternate and Parallel by Richard BirkinComplete transcript available. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: If you like