Western University professor and his students launching a tennis ball-sized camera into the stratosphere

Students affiliated with London's Western University are in northern Ontario this week to launch an infrared camera the size of the tennis ball into the Earth's stratosphere.

The goal is to test equipment at the Canadian Space Agency's balloon base at the Timmins airport that could be used in future missions to detect Earth-like planets in our galaxy and beyond.

"This really helps us build a low-cost space mission afterwards if we can demonstrate that the camera is actually sufficiently good for taking astronomical images," said Stanimir Metchev, a professor in Western's department of physics and astronomy.

Metchev is leading a group of students, each with their own specialities, on the project.

Engineering student Ali Mohammed-Ali is testing the camera before it's lifted 33 kilometres above the Earth's surface with a "super-sized" weather balloon.

"I was also responsible for setting up a communications link to space so that we can actually talk to the camera from the ground and obtain scientific images," he said.

Before attaching the camera to the balloon, Mohammed-Ali said the team had a successful test from the ground.

"We actually got to image the Andromeda Galaxy."

Metchev said the infrared camera will be used to spot smaller stars that could have Earth-like planets in their orbit.

"Those kinds of stars, they tend to be small, they tend to be dim, and that makes it easier to actually see Earth-like planets around them."

The team will launch the weather balloon on Friday. Metchev said they will start collecting data as early as Saturday.