Brave doughnut with sprinkles travels to the edge of space

Here's a story that would make Homer Simpson want to become an astronaut.

On April 8, an intrepid doughnut left the comfort of its doughnut box and ventured beyond the sky, all the way to the edge of space. It got there by hitching a ride on a weather balloon, sent there by a hobbyist group called Stratolys.

Stratolys had one ambitious goal: to send the first doughnut into space. The doughnut made it to nearly 20 miles above Earth's surface, which doesn't really qualify as being in space, but it did generate some gorgeous video footage showing the breakfast food hovering against the curvature of the planet.

The doughnut's bold trip started in Norway and took about 84 minutes. Cameras captured the ascent, the bursting of the balloon and the dramatic descent. A search-and-rescue group recovered the doughnut from its landing site in a lake. The doughnut, with pink icing and sprinkles, ended up in rough condition after its flight and dip into the water. It came out a mushy mess, soaked but still triumphant.

Stratolys member Alexander Jönsson tells Crave the cost of the helium, cameras and equipment for the adventure cost just over $1,100 (about £774, AU$1,497). He says no one has tried to take a bite of the doughnut, but the remains of the cake-like creation are still in his possession.

This isn't the first time a doughnut-like object has been spotted around space. A mysterious appeared on Mars in sight of NASA's Curiosity rover in early 2014. Unlike the Norway-launched space-doughnut, the Mars object turned out to just be a rock the rover kicked over, which doesn't sound delicious at all.

(Via Reddit)