Saturn's radiation belts: A stranger to the solar wind

The radiation belts of Earth and Saturn differ more strongly than previously assumed. In these belts, very energetic particles, such as electrons and protons, move around the planet at high velocities - captured by its magnetic field. In the case of the Earth, the solar wind, a current of charged particles from the Sun varying in strength, controls the intensity of the radiation belt both directly and indirectly. The radiation belts of Saturn, however, develop completely independently of the sol...