Recently, a British company launched a fluffy toy into the stratosphere, attempting to break a world record. The stratosphere is a layer in the Earth’s atmosphere located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere, with its upper boundary approximately 50 to 55 kilometers from the Earth’s surface.
According to a report from the New York Post on March 21, the UK-based app developer named “Raspberry Circle” organized this event with the aim of encouraging young people to spend more time outdoors.
On March 4, the company used a high-altitude balloon to send a 9-ounce (255 grams) fluffy toy named Emy flying over the state of New York in the United States at an altitude of 116,419 feet (35,485 meters). After the balloon burst, Emy gently landed back on the ground two days later, safely perched on a tree in Connecticut.
The CEO of the company, Sachin Raoul, mentioned that they have submitted the relevant data of the event to the World Record Certification Agency for review in order to potentially set a new world record for the highest altitude reached by an object carried by a high-altitude balloon and are currently awaiting the outcome.
The company created an Instagram page named “emyadventure1” to document the journey of this event, accumulating over 1 million followers to date.
During Emy’s descent to the ground, there were speculations that it may catch fire and burn upon reentry. However, Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist from Harvard University, explained that due to Emy’s low density and slow speed, it did not burn up in the atmosphere while returning to the Earth’s surface.
He elaborated that objects like meteors of similar size burn up in the atmosphere because they impact the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds 1,000 times faster, generating a million times more heat in the air, resulting in their combustion.
Such amusing stories of toys being sent to the stratosphere have occurred before, as reported by Dajiyuan. In 2013, a 13-year-old American girl named Lauren Rojas successfully launched her favorite Hello Kitty toy to the stratosphere using a homemade weather balloon rocket.
By venturing into the stratosphere with unconventional feats like launching toys, these events not only capture the interest of the public but also showcase innovation and creativity in exploring beyond our atmospheric boundaries.