Strange balloon floats over Denver

DENVER (KDVR) - An odd-looking balloon floated across the Denver area Friday morning. While it may look mysterious, the oddly shaped white-clear orb in the sky isn't a mystery — it's a piece of technology similar to a weather balloon.

On Friday morning, viewers of Nexstar's KDVR reported a strange balloon around 7:20 a.m. The station tracked it down outside of the city.

Here's a close-up of the balloon:

According to World View Enterprises, a space exploration and technology company, the balloon is one of their Stratollite balloons, which is similar to a weather balloon. However, Phil Wocken with World View said weather balloons pop at high altitudes.

"This is a more sophisticated system that allows us to fly and navigate in the stratosphere for days, weeks and months at a time," said Wocken.

Wocken said the balloon was launched across northern Arizona last Saturday and it’s “carrying a payload for NASA.”  It’s currently flying at 73,000 feet, which is over 30,000 feet above the commercial airspace.

According to Wocken, the balloon is studying solar radiation in the stratosphere. However, the company said the technology can measure plenty of different variables such as tracking wildfires, storm systems and greenhouse gases.

Based on the trajectory, Wocken said the balloon will hang around the Denver metro for much of Friday morning before winds take the balloon southwest.