Something weird is happening to the Earth’s magnetic field and NASA is worried. There’s a large magnetic dent over South America and South-west Africa that’s splitting and growing. The intensity of our planet’s magnetic field is significantly weaker than in other parts of the globe. This is known as the South Atlantic Anomaly. The reason NASA is worried and actively tracking it is because many spacecraft and satellites, including the International Space Station, pass over this region. This exposes them to several minutes of strong ionizing (aɪ.ə.naɪˈzeɪ - ing) radiation, caused by the trapped protons in the inner Van Allen belt. Scientists are still not sure what causes the anomaly, or how it will continue to evolve in the future. However, they are working to better understand it, so that they can mitigate its effects on future space missions.

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