Van Allen belts

A pair of regions of the magnetosphere, located in the plane of the equator, in which there is a high concentration of highly energetic electrical particles, as a result of the interaction of the solar wind and cosmic radiation with the Earth's magnetic field. Each of those belts forms a toroid in which the aforementioned particles are confined, all orbiting around the Earth. The inner belt is located at a distance of between 1 and 2 Earth radii, and the outer one between 3 and 4. They are named in honor of James A. Van Allen (1914-2006), the American physicist who discovered them.