What happens to balloons that get away and fly off to the heavens? I’m talking of your typical helium/mylar/plastic type…do they go up a few hundred feet and burst, and then hurtle towards the ground in shreds? Do they go up for a while and then get caught in air currents and develop an orbit? How high and how long do they last once they are set free?
S
When a balloon flies up into the air when filled by helium, I believe one of two things can happen:
1: If the balloon is crafted from a material able to resist bursting or tearing, the balloon will continue to rise until it reaches it’s buoyancy point. The air below pushes it in the sky as it tries to displace the balloon, much like an air bubble in the water rising to the surface. One it reaches the buoyancy point, it will “bob” on the ocean of air below it, like a buoy on the surface of the water.
2: If it is a weak material, it will rise and expand until it finally reaches the point where the internal presure is too great in relation to the outside pressure, and it will burst.
When I was a kid in Northern Virginia, I found a burst balloon with a stamped, addressed postcard on it and a space to describe where, when, and how it was found. It was part of a school’s distance contest. It had come from somewhere in West Virginia, about 150 miles away.
The kid in WVA wrote me back to say thanks, but that he hadn’t won. So I suppose those things can really scoot if the conditions are right.
Balloons lose their helium through microscopic openings in the rubber. Helium atoms are noble gasses, and really small to begin with, so they leak fairly fast–a few days is probably all that a typical toy balloon can counterbalance the weight of a postcard at sea level, but longevity might be increased if it continued to be swept to higher altitudes. My guess is that wind speed, temperature, and altitude all play a significant role. I suppose if one leaked at an ideal rate so that it wouldn’t burst while ascending, it might be able to get to a good high-altitude current and really take off. I’ll be interested to see how far people have heard of them going.
When I was in the 4th grade in New York State we each let fly a helium balloon. Mine was never found, but my sketchy memory is that one of my classmates had a balloon that was found in England.