ABINGDON School pupils sent a balloon to the edge of space to see how hot it was.

Lower sixth physicists built the balloon with guidance from Samantha Graham of European Astrotech, a leading space industry firm.

It was designed to ascend to the edge of space, about 30,000 metres up, and return to earth.

The balloon was equipped with GPS to track its location, as well as devices to measure humidity, temperature and air pressure.

Pupils also designed experiments to study the change in the colour of the sky due to ‘Rayleigh Scattering’, and how ultraviolet levels changed with altitude.

The sensors collecting the information were connected to an onboard computer, and the balloon was equipped with two video cameras.

Pupils spent 12 weeks organising the flight and have now started harvesting the data.