Not everyone likes science or even cares about how it works. But sometimes science is too cool to ignore. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists are revisiting an old hypothesis from the late 1980s by the astronomer Roger Angel about creating bubbles in space to make a kind of umbrella to shade the Earth. Yeah they suggest space bubbles. With advances in technology over the past 30 years, they now think they’ve figured out how to do it.


This news is not only incredible, it looks like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie. It may sound outrageous, but it could be a real practical solution to the Earth’s climate change problem. Climate change, according to The United Nations (UN), involves “long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns”, which since the 1800s have been driven primarily by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. Coal, oil, and gas all produce heat-trapping gases that are slowly global warming and causing rising carbon dioxide, warming oceans and melting polar ice caps, all of which endanger animals and lead to rising sea levels.

It feels like melting when you spend more than a few minutes outside lately, but it’s not all gloomy. Scientists are working to find a solution to the Earth’s fiery situation as the effects of new renewable energy sources are realized. And that’s where space bubbles come in. MIT scientists were able to create a high-tech thin film in the form of a bubble in near-space conditions, meaning it should be able to be recreated in space.

These scientists asked for a “feasibility studyto see if space bubbles actually work, recommending the creation of bubbly mass in space brazil size. And no, it doesn’t involve scientists blowing bubbles with a giant bubble wand – that would be quite comical.

Example of space bubbles in action.

MIT/Sensitive City Laboratory

High-tech bubbles, if they could be launched into space to save the planet, could reflect wavelengths of solar radiation of different varieties. But there’s this pesky thing called gravity. The bubbles should be far enough away from Earth not to be pulled down, but far enough away from the sun not to burn. For now, the researchers are just spreading the idea around the world in hopes that it can be exploited in the future. Apart from the preliminary experiments that have shown that space bubbles are possible, there is still work to be done to make it a reality.

In the meantime, we can enjoy the image in our heads of an umbrella made of space bubbles shading the Earth. Imagining astronauts popping them with a video game like laser gun is also fun. All eyes are on MIT as they determine if we will have space bubbles for Earth’s birthday party in the next few years. In the meantime, we non-scientific humans should probably continue to do our part to slow climate change.