Van Allen Belts Got Nuked

In 1958, American physicist James Van Allen announced the discovery of radiation belts around Earth using data from the early U.S. satellites Explorer 1 and Explorer 3. Van Allen then agreed on that same day to help the U.S. military test whether atomic explosions in the magnetosphere could disrupt those belts. The plan became part of Cold War high-altitude nuclear testing, including Operation Argus in 1958. Historian James Fleming later described it as the first case he had found where "someone discovered something and immediately decided to blow it up."

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