This image shows the famous “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula 7000 light years away. This photo was taken with SuperBIT – a telescope hanging on a helium balloon.
So far, the Hubble Space Telescope is the most powerful optical telescope in astronomy. But in the near future, a significantly cheaper alternative could dispute this rank: a telescope hanging from a long-life helium balloon. The first versions of this instrument, called SuperBIT, with a 0.50 meter mirror have already completed test flights. The telescope was carried by a helium balloon with a volume of a good 530,000 cubic meters to a height of 40 kilometers – well beyond all the turbulence in the lower atmosphere.
On one of these flights, the photos were taken from which this composite image of the “Pillars of Creation” is put together. This cloud of dust and gas, made famous by iconic Hubble images, is around 7,000 light years away from us in the Eagle Nebula. It is deformed by the intense light of young stars and appears to form towering pillars. The image from SuperBit demonstrates that the current version of this balloon telescope does not yet achieve as high a resolution as the space telescope, but that it can deliver sharp images despite its airy suspension.
In the future, SuperBit should be even more durable and sharp-eyed. Because the project team is already planning to design a follow-up model with a 1st, 50-meter mirror. Combined with a stronger wide-angle lens and a larger camera, this should make SuperBit even higher resolution than Hubble. So that this balloon telescope does not stay in the upper atmosphere for just a few hours, it is carried up with the help of a special balloon developed by NASA. This “superpressure” balloon should be able to stay in the air for months. Similar to the Hubble space telescope, the large SuperBit is supposed to be supplied with electricity via solar panels. The next test flight is scheduled to take place in April 2022.