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Space ChickenOutfitted in a homemade spacesuit, "Camilla" the rubber chicken rides into the stratosphere on March 3 as part of an experiment to measure solar radiation at point-blank range.Students with Bishop Union High School in California launched the chicken—the mascot of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory—before and during a solar storm. For both flights Camilla wore a pair of radiation badges of the same kind used by medical technicians and nuclear workers to assess dosages.The results will help the students design a future astrobiology project to test whether certain species of microbes can survive the harsh conditions at the edge of space.

Image courtesy Earth to Sky, Bishop, California