SpaceX launch puts UMass Lowell research into orbit

An Air Force satellite launched into orbit this week via SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket carries an instrument built by UMass Lowell researchers to conduct experiments in space.

The radiation belt storm probes

(Phys.org)—Since the dawn of the Space Age, mission planners have tried to follow one simple but important rule: Stay out of the van Allen Belts. The two doughnut-shaped regions around Earth are filled with "killer electrons," ...

Shocking recipe for making killer electrons (w/ Video)

Take a bunch of fast-moving electrons, place them in orbit and then hit them with the shock waves from a solar storm. What do you get? Killer electrons. That's the shocking recipe revealed by ESA's Cluster mission.