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James Van Allen

• id: PER-006
• lifespan: 1914–2006
• known_for: discoverer of Earth's radiation belts; instruments on decades of missions
• missions: Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11
• confidence: believed-correct

James Van Allen, a University of Iowa physicist, discovered Earth's radiation belts — now named for him — with his instrument on Explorer 1, America's first satellite, in 1958. His Geiger Tube Telescope flew on Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, making the first direct measurements of Jupiter's far fiercer belts.