Did you know
that there's a mysterious area in space
where astronauts are unable
to communicate with home base?
They're exposed to extreme
levels of radiation
and their spaceships
start to malfunction?
It's being dubbed
the Bermuda Triangle of Space.
This area has perplexed scientists
for decades,
but astronomers
may have finally solved
this outer space anomaly.
What exactly
is the Bermuda Triangle of Space, anyway?
Well, its official name
is the South Atlantic anomaly or SAA
for short, it's hovering
above the South Atlantic,
stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe.
And this area has a considerably weaker
magnetic field
when compared to the rest of the Van
Allen Radiation Belt.
The Van Allen Radiation Belt is a pair
of cosmic donut surrounding Earth.
This is a unique location
where the radiation
belt comes closest
to the Earth's surface.
These belts trap particles
that shoot from the Sun,
which protects the Earth
from harmful radiation.
The solar radiation
within the South Atlantic anomaly
isn't held back
to the same degree, though.
But why?
Well, to explain that first,
let's dive into
what happens
if you wander into this terrifying
part of our solar system.
You know, trying to solve this Bermuda
Triangle of Space
really sparked a mystery
craving for the What If team.
So we played
Hunter a Killer’s “Dead Below Deck”
at a recent games day.
This game is filled
with suspicious characters
and intriguing evidence,
all of which had us feeling
like we were the world's
greatest detectives.
The game doesn't have any rules
and it doesn't have any time constraints.
It's just you and your friends,
a slew of clues
and a mystery waiting to be unraveled.
My favorite part was
how immersive it was.
Some versions even have things like A.I. chats
and real actors
to make the game more interactive.
They've got single box cases, multi-part
sagas, and six or 12-months subscriptions.
And if you ever get stuck,
you just hit up
the spoiler-free
online community for help.
It's ideal for game nights,
dates, family fun,
whatever you want.
Get your “Dead Below Deck”
game from Amazon, Target
or Walmart today.
And thanks to Hunter a Killer
for sponsoring this episode.
Now let's see if we can solve this
space Bermuda Triangle mystery.
The SAA is known for
causing electronic malfunctions in space
ships and extreme
radiation exposure for astronauts.
It can completely destroy spacecraft.
In 2016,
the Japanese satellite Hitomi,
came crashing down to Earth
after satellite operators
began getting mixed signals
from the ship.
It was reporting inaccurate data
about how it was performing up in space,
making people down on Earth
think that everything was fine,
but this was happening
as it traveled through the SAA
so operators weren't aware
that there was a problem
and couldn't take steps to correct it.
The Hubble
telescope, luckily,
has managed to avoid any issues
while traveling through the SAA.
That's despite
spending a whopping 15% of its time
in this space anomaly.
To protect the telescope,
satellite operators power it down.
If they didn't,
the SAA could corrupt any precious data
that's being collected
and potentially crash.
But how do astronauts
deal with these
heavy levels of radiation?
Well, their radiation levels
are constantly being monitored.
So if they do end up in the anomaly,
they have what's known as a water wall.
Certain rooms on ships are filled
with these massive bags of water.
And if you stand behind them,
they'll protect you from radiation.
Water is the best thing to shield
you from this harmful energy.
Because of its high hydrogen content.
Now, if they didn't have this water wall,
they could get severe radiation poisoning
or even cancer.
So we know the radiation levels are much
higher and more dangerous
in this specific part of space.
But why is it happening
in the first place?
Well, despite
what pictures might show you, Earth
isn't completely round, it
bulges around the center, like me.
And because of this,
the Earth's physical center
and its magnetic center
are slightly off by about 500km (310mi).
This offset means things like cosmic rays
can get closer to the Earth's surface
near the bulging area.
Luckily, the Earth's magnetic bubble
can still keep all those dangerous rays
from getting to us.
But that's not the case
for people in space
above the South Atlantic.
Because of this,
stronger radiation levels
can reach this point up in space.
And what's even more concerning,
due to the fact
that the magnetic poles here on Earth
are constantly changing.
The South Atlantic Anomaly keeps growing.
It's also gotten weaker by 15%, meaning
the radiation
has gotten stronger in the area.
So NASA has been carefully
monitoring the SAA since 2019.
They've noticed that
the anomaly is moving west.
And what's even weirder,
the anomaly is also splitting in two.
If this continues, it could make things
even more complicated,
regarding space travel
and data collection.
But luckily for it
to change significantly
would take millions,
if not billions of years.
So this Bermuda Triangle of space
isn't as mysterious as it sounds,
and astronomers are getting better
at handling it
with every new ship
launch and every piece of data recorded.
This would probably become a way
bigger problem
if the Earth's magnetic poles
suddenly flipped.
But that's a story for another,
WHAT IF.