Sometimes on TV documentaries when talking about the discovery of Van Allen belts, they show this 1950s footage of a particular experiment in which a small globe is set in place at some sort of paritcle stream is shot at it. This then produces a Van Allen belt effect around the globe.
Can anyone illudicate on what this experiment may be? I’m assuming the globe has a strong bar magnet inside and the whole thing is in an evacuated chamber; electrons are then shot at the globe.