(Image courtesy of University of Leicester)
A weather balloon launched with a GoPro camera on it has soared to an altitude of over 14 miles high, filming jaw-dropping images of the curvature of the Earth and its blue glow.
Students from the University of Leicester sent the balloon, along with a payload, on its mission in December, and recovered it after it fell back to Earth, reaching speeds of over 100 mph in the process. An edited video of the balloon’s journey has been published to YouTube and set to music, and it’s absolutely stunning.
The balloon traveled much higher than the altitude ceiling of a 747, reaching a place where the temperature was about -70 Fahrenheit. The team that launched the balloon expects to do more such flights with an eye towards tracking pollution, according to a statement from the University of Leicester.
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