venue.noun,.plural.venues
the scene or setting in which something takes place; a locale; a place for gatherings, as a sports stadium
Law:.in law, the locality where a crime has been committed or a cause of action occurs; the clause within a declaration naming the locality in which a trial will be held; the clause in an affidavit naming the place where it was affirmed or sworn to by the individual making the affidavit

virology.noun,.plural.virologies
the study of viruses and so-called viral.diseases
virological.or.virologic.adjective
virologist.noun,.plural.virologists

Venetian blind.noun,.plural.Venetian blinds
a type of window covering made of long flat bars of plastic, wood, or metal, called slats, that are fastened together and can be moved to change the amount of light that comes through the window; a Venetian blind is a window blind made of thin horizontal strips, called slats, which can be adjusted to let in more or less light and which overlap when closed

vertigo.noun,.plural.vertigos
the sensation of dizziness, caused by one's balance system getting overloaded; an instance of such a sensation; from 'vertere' meaning 'to turn'
vertiginous.adjective
turning about an axis; revolving or whirling (the whirling dervishes); affected by vertigo; dizzy; giddy; tending to produce vertigo
vertiginously.adverb
vertiginousness.noun,.plural.vertiginousnesses

Van Allen belts.proper noun

named after James Alfred Van Allen, born September 7, 1914, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, U.S., died August 9, 2006, Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.

The Van Allen belts are doughnut-shaped zones of highly energetic charged particles trapped at high altitudes in the magnetic field of Earth. The zones were named for James A. Van Allen, the American physicist who discovered them in 1958, using data transmitted by the U.S. Explorer satellite.

The Van Allen belts are of two atmospheric regions or zones of high-intensity particulate radiation, one at an altitude of about 2000 miles (3200 kilometers) and the other at from 9000 to 12,000 miles (14,500 to 19,000 kilometers).

The inner Van Allen belts are radiation belts consisting largely of highly energetic protons, with energy exceeding 30,000,000 electron.volts. The peak intensity of these protons is approximately 20,000 particles per second crossing a spherical area of one square centimeter in all directions.

In 1951 Van Allen became professor of physics at the University of Iowa, where he taught until his retirement in 1985. He was one of the scientists who proposed a program of worldwide cooperation in research, the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58. The instrumentation of the early Explorer satellites, part of the United States' IGY program, was built by Van Allen and his associates. Launched on January 31, 1958, Explorer 1 was the first successful U.S. space satellite. The information on cosmic radiation gathered by the Explorer satellites led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts. He later participated in the development of numerous space probes built to study planetary and solar physics. Van Allen wrote numerous papers and journal articles. He also edited Scientific Uses of Earth Satellites (1956) and was an associate editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research (1959–64) and Physics of Fluids (1958–62). He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1959 and was president of the American Geophysical Union from 1982 to 1984. In 1987 he was awarded the National Medal of Science.

The Van Allen belts are most intense over the Equator and are effectively absent above the poles. No real gap exists between the two zones; they actually merge gradually, with the flux of charged particles showing two regions of maximum density. The inner region is centred approximately 1,860 miles (3,000 km) above the terrestrial surface. The outer region of maximum density is centred at an altitude of about 9,300 to 12,400 miles (15,000 to 20,000 km), though some estimates place it as far above the surface as six Earth radii, about 23,700 miles (38,000 km).

Particles move in spiral paths along the lines of force of Earth's magnetic field. As the particles approach either of the magnetic poles, the increase in the strength of the field causes them to be reflected. Because of this so-called magnetic mirror effect, the particles bounce back and forth between the magnetic poles. Over time, they collide with atoms in the thin atmosphere, resulting in their removal from the belt. The most energetic particles of the outer belt are electrons, whose energies reach up to several hundred million electron volts.....comprised with information from Encyclopedia Britannica.....pic courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica.