Light Flashes Observed on Skylab 4: The Role of Nuclear Stars
Abstract
The astronauts on Skylab 4 observed bursts of intense visual light flash activity when their spacecraft passed through the South Atlantic Anomaly. Flash rates as high as 20 per minute have in the past been considered unexpectedly high. When the effect of nuclear interactions in and near the retina is included, the apparent anomaly is removed.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- September 1976
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.193.4257.1002
- Bibcode:
- 1976Sci...193.1002R
- Keywords:
-
- Astronaut Performance;
- Nuclear Interactions;
- Retinal Images;
- Skylab 4;
- Visual Observation;
- Afterimages;
- Inner Radiation Belt;
- Optical Illusion;
- Proton Belts;
- Space Radiation