把望远镜举高至空中

Carried by a balloon the size of a football stadium, ASTHROS will use a telescope to observe wavelengths of light that aren’t visible from the ground. Work has begun on ASTHROS (short for Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths), a new mission that will carry a cutting-edge 8.4-foot telescope high into the stratosphere on a balloon that is tentatively planned to launch in December 2023 from Antarctica.

This illustration shows a high-altitude balloon ascending into the upper atmosphere. When fully inflated, these balloons are 400 feet (150 meters) wide, or about the size of a football stadium, and reach an altitude of 130,000 feet (24.6 miles or 40 kilometers).

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab/Michael Lentz

由一个足球场大小的气球携带，ASTHROS将使用望远镜来观察从地面看不到的波长的光。ASTHROS(用于在亚毫米波长下进行高光谱分辨率观测的天体物理平流层望远镜的简称)的工作已经开始。这是一个新的任务，它将把一个8.4英尺高的尖端望远镜通过一个气球带到平流层，这个气球暂定于2023年12月从南极洲发射。

这张插图显示了一个上升到高层大气的高空气球。充足气后，这些气球宽400英尺(150米)，相当于一个足球场的大小，高度可达130,000英尺(24.6英里或40公里)。

图片提供：NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab/Michael Lentz