Scientific Impacts

The three main scientific achievements that came out of the International Geophysical Year included the first artificial satellites, the discovery of Van Allen Belts, and the discovery of mid-ocean ridges. Other more general achievements, a mix of political and scientific, include the establishment of the World Data Centres and the founding of NASA.

The IGY inspired many more international scientific projects, especially within geophysics, including the Upper Mantle Project, International Indian Ocean Expedition, and the International Years of the Quiet Sun. This research complimented the data taken during the IGY, to further our understanding in certain geophysical topics (McCahey, 2025).

For more information on all 12 of the scientific research categories, visit the Background page here:

Background Information Page

Image Credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL

First Satellites

Arguably the most notable achievement of the IGY was the launch of the first artificial satellite in space, Sputnik 1. The fourth satellite Explorer 1, launched the following year by the U.S., ultimately starting the Space Age (Uri, 2023).

Image Credit: Space Center Houston

Van Allen Belts

The Van Allen radiation belt is a donut-shaped zone of charged particles, mostly from solar wind, that are held around a planet’s magnetic field. James A. Van Allen, an American physicist, designed the instruments on board Explorer 1 that first encountered these radiation belts in 1958 (Beardslee, 2020).

Image Credit: Mr. Elliot Lim, CIRES and NOAA/NCEI

Mid-Ocean Ridges

Mid-Ocean Ridges are underwater mountain ranges where Earth’s tectonic plates spread apart to form new seafloor. An IGY survey defined the length of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, that led to the mapping of the continuous mid-ocean ridges that encircle the globe, and the Theory of Plate Tectonics (Lipuma, 2022).

IGY geophysicist taking magnetic observations.

Image credit: John Claydon

Establishment of World Data Centres

The IGY collected an unprecedented amount of data in various forms such as charts, maps, film, photos, tables, and data sheets. The large volume of information collected led to the establishment of World Data Centres to preserve the data and make it available to all international partners (McCahey, 2025). The USA and USSR organized and financed the creation of the World Data Centers, that intended on providing free copies of all observations during the IGY. After 3 years of their existence, the World Data Centers received around one million storage units worth of scientific material on every continent. The World Data Centers not only allowed the internationalization of science for the first time, but also became the most complete science archive (Lyubovtseva et al., 2020).

Founding of NASA

After the launch of Sputnik, the United States Congress began hearings to develop a long-term space plan. On July 29th, 1958, U.S. President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, and NASA was born. The National Aeronatics and Space Administation officially opened its headquarters in Washington, D.C., on October 1st, 1958 (Uri, 2023).

Discover the history of NASA and their interstellar accomplishments here:

NASA History

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signing the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958.

Image credit: NASA