Scientists have discovered the force that creates "killer electrons," particles that pose a significant hazard to spacecraft and astronauts.

The supercharged particles are also a menace to satellites, which are increasingly vital to phones, television, and other communication systems.

Killer electrons are found in the outermost of Earth's doughnut-shaped radiation belts. The belts circle the Earth and are bound by the planet's magnetic fields.

Scientists have long pondered where the killer particles come from and how they accumulate in the radiation belts.

But a team at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory may have solved the mystery, and their findings suggest the particles actually form much closer to home.

"I think we show conclusively they do not come from further out [in space]. They are accelerated in the radiation belt itself," said Reiner Friedel, co-author of a paper published in the July issue of the journal Nature Physics.