Publication Date:
2016-07-08
Description:
The largest pressurized balloon to be launched by NASA has set a record for endurance: the longest midlatitude flight by a large scientific balloon. For decades, conventional "zero-pressure" balloons have given researchers a high-altitude platform for studying atmospheric chemistry, the cosmic microwave background, and many other phenomena. But at temperate latitudes, the endurance of conventional balloons is limited. So-called superpressure balloons promise to bring that endurance to temperate latitudes, opening new phenomena to observation. Packing 532,000 cubic meters of helium and measuring 114 meters in diameter, NASA's latest superpressure balloon circled the Southern Hemisphere for 46 days, lofting a gamma ray telescope to the edges of space. Author: Patrick Monahan
Keywords:
Astrophysics
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Geosciences
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
