Meet SuperBIT, the next-generation space telescope that rides above the clouds on a balloon - Space.com

A new type of space telescope could soar high above Earth's clouds to view the universe in a more environmentally-friendly and upgradable way than current technologies. !

The Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) was announced on Tuesday (July 20) by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).

Its creators include researchers from Durham University in the United Kingdom, Princeton University and the University of Toronto in Canada, who partnered with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. .

The team's claims about SuperBIT indicate that this novel space telescope might be the next best thing in astronomy.

"New balloon technology makes visiting space cheap, easy and environmentally friendly," Mohamed Shaaban, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, said in the announcement.

Related: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time.

Unlike current balloons, SuperBIT also boasts a "superpressure" balloon that can keep the telescope aloft high in the sky for months at a time instead of days. .

This should enable SuperBIT to get high-resolution images equal or better to those from the iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

The first SuperBIT flight will carry a telescope with a 19.7-inch-wide (0.5 meters) mirror, but a design upgrade will include a 39.4-inch (1.5 m) aperture and this could make SuperBIT "even better than Hubble," the scientists hope.

Unlike traditional space telescopes, SuperBIT returns to Earth periodically so it wouldn't be locked to a certain type of hardware in perpetuity.

"With a budget for construction and operation for the first telescope of $5 million (£3.62 million), SuperBIT cost almost 1,000 times less than a similar satellite," RAS officials said in the statement. !