ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility

Okay kiddo, have you ever played with a balloon before? You know how it goes up in the air when you let it go? Well, the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility is like a giant version of that, but for scientists.

Scientists use big balloons to lift their instruments and experiments high up in the air, sometimes all the way up to the edge of space! This way, they can study things like the Earth's atmosphere, the stars, and the weather.

The Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility is a big building where they make these balloons and launch them into the sky. Inside the building, there are people who work to carefully fill the balloons with a special gas, like helium or hydrogen, to make them float.

They also make sure the balloons have everything they need to stay up in the air for a long time, like a basket to hold the experiments and instruments, batteries and solar panels for power, and a way to communicate with the scientists on the ground.

When everything is ready, the scientists let go of the balloon and watch as it goes up and up, into the sky. It can float for a few hours or even many days before it comes back down to Earth, and the scientists can gather all the data they need to learn more about our world, the universe, and how we can take care of them.

So, that's the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility! It's a place where people work to make really big balloons to help scientists study the world around us.