Weird balloon circling the Southern Hemisphere isn’t a spy craft

A white balloon against a blue sky — The spy balloon-like telescope was noticed above Chile on Might 6. (Picture credit score: Erwin Enrique Sandoval)

Over the previous few weeks, an unlimited balloon has been noticed circling Earth’s Southern Hemisphere within the higher reaches of the ambiance, sparking fears that it might be a spy balloon just like the UFOs that had been shot down above North America in February.

However the large floating bubble is definitely NASA’s newest telescope, the Tremendous Stress Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT). And quite than spying on unsuspecting individuals beneath, the telescope is peering into the cosmos above in the hunt for darkish matter.

The enormous balloon, which is wider than a soccer discipline, was launched on April 16 from Wānaka, New Zealand and has since accomplished greater than two full revolutions across the Southern Hemisphere — the longest steady flight for a balloon-borne telescope, in line with a NASA assertion (opens in new tab).

On Might 6, photographer Erwin Enrique Sandoval captured a crisp picture of SuperBIT round 25 miles (40 kilometers) above Coyhaique in southern Chile. “We may see it excessive within the afternoon sky,” Sandoval instructed Spaceweather.com (opens in new tab). “It was very giant.”

Associated: World’s largest communication satellite tv for pc is a photobombing menace, astronomers warn

Colored lines marking the balloons trajectory circle Antarctica on a map

A map exhibiting SuperBIT’s trajectory across the Southern Hemisphere. (Picture credit score: NASA)

SuperBIT’s major purpose is to seek for proof of darkish matter by taking detailed pictures of galaxies to be able to spot indicators of gravitational lensing — the phenomenon the place mild from a distant galaxy will get magnified because it travels by gravitationally warped space-time round a more in-depth galaxy — that might present clues in regards to the invisible but considerable matter’s true id.

A brand new research, launched April 20 within the journal Nature Astronomy (opens in new tab), revealed that mild from oddly-warped “Einstein rings” may make clear darkish matter’s true id.

At its lofty altitude, SuperBIT sits above 99.2% of Earth’s ambiance, which suggests there’s little to no air to obscure its view of the celebrities, in line with the SuperBIT web site (opens in new tab). At this top, the telescope can even seize pictures by day or evening.

Picture 1 of 2

A spiral galaxy agaisnt a black background — A preliminary picture of the Messier 83, additionally know because the The Southern Pinwheel spiral galaxy, taken by the SuperBIT telescope. (Picture credit score: NASA/SuperBit)

Astronomers imagine the info collected by SuperBIT is comparable in high quality to the Hubble Area Telescope, in line with Spaceweather.com. And the balloon-borne telescope has already captured a number of gorgeous photographs (opens in new tab) of distant galaxies.

However astronomy is just not the one attainable use for large balloons like this. In June 2020, house tourism firm Area Perspective launched its plans to finally take civilians to the sting of house utilizing related balloons.

Eager-eyed observers and astronomy lovers may have a lot extra possibilities to catch a glimpse of the balloon. “Hopefully, we’ll full many extra revolutions in regards to the hemisphere over the subsequent a number of weeks,” Debbie Fairbrother (opens in new tab), chief of NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program Workplace, stated within the assertion. (A single revolution may take anyplace between one and three weeks relying on wind patterns.)

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Related Posts