Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
name of radiation belts around the Earth (and certain other planets), 1959, from U.S. physicist James A. Van Allen (1914-2006), who reported them in 1958.
Wikipedia
Van Allen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
- James Van Allen (1914-2006), American space scientist
- John Delbert Van Allen (1850-1928), retail dry goods merchant and department store owner
- Mark van Allen (born 1954), American musician
- Shaun Van Allen (born 1967), former hockey player
- Van Allen Plexico (born 1968), science fiction and fantasy author
Usage examples of "van allen".
There, where the magnetic field of the planetary body was bent inward right down to the ground, the potent Van Allen radiation belt was a minimum threat.
The Van Allen space telescope recently detected a small planetary system around it, and if the rest of my conjecture is correct, then its distance of nineteen-point-two light-years is on target.
One interesting side effect of a magnetic radiation shield is that it would capture particles from the solar wind and produce its own miniature version of Earth's Van Allen belts.
During the reversal period, the planet would be temporarily without a magnetic field, and the result could be that earth experienced a sudden heavy bombardment of cosmic rays and other high-speed particles of the kind that are at present diverted by the Van Allen belts around us.