Expert: Donald Rosenfeld - 7/14/2002

Question
I need to know what would happen to a hot air balloon rising up to the thermosphere.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Katie

Below the thermosphere is the mesosphere where the temperature drops to minus 148 degrees F. So, the balloon would not make it higher because of the brittleness of the material.

If it were to go higher, it would explode in the thermosphere because of the lack of atmosphere and the mrelt because of extreme temperatures.

For more info, see:

http://newmedia.avs.uakron.edu/geology/ge/ch/atm/atmos.htm