Stratospheric Balloon Telescope Peeks Above The Clouds At The Sun

There’s lots of things you can do with balloons. Children’s birthday parties come to mind, as do retirement parties. But you can also observe the Sun in unprecedented detail with one - or at least with a suite of equipment attached to a gondola floating beneath one. That’s what the SUNRISE III mission did back in 2024, and scientists have had time to compile a series of three scientific papers on the results from that mission, which have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

So why use a balloon? The Earth’s atmosphere is turbulent, which can smear fine details of solar observation, such as the smallest magnetic features on the Sun. Lifting instruments above most of Earth’s atmosphere significantly sharpens the picture, and a balloon provides that benefit without all the mechanical constraints of a true rocket launch.