A really big balloon to see the sun like never before

BOULDER – Colorado scientists are developing a way to see the sun like it's never been seen before.

They are working on a balloon that will carry a telescope which will be able to take the highest resolution pictures ever captured of the sun.

"This is record-breaking science," said Jack Fox, an engineer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. "It will be able take unprecedented photographs of the sun that have never been taken at this resolution."

The balloon, which is larger than a 747 jet, will be released into near Space, about 120,000 feet above the Earth's surface.

A test flight earlier this month proved it could work.

"From our stand point the flight was as close to perfect as it could be," said Fox.

The balloon will allow scientists to get pictures of the sun at a fraction of the cost and time of using a satellite.

"You would do the same thing with a satellite, but the cost would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars opposed to the millions with this project," said Fox.

Scientists say the pictures will allow them to better understand the sun's magnetic activity that affects both satellites and astronauts.

So while it may only look like an oversized balloon, this technology could change the way we all look at the sun.

"We realized this is big science and we were working on the biggest thing we can do in solar physics," said David Elmore, another NCAR engineer.

The so-called Sunrise Project is set to take flight from Sweden in 2009.