Aerogel

Aerogel and Thermal Tile

Aerogel Guinness World Record

Aerogel (often called solid smoke) is one of the world’s weirdest materials. In the picture blelow a piece of aerogel with a mass of just over two grams is holding up a brick with a mass more than a thousand times larger.

Aerogel

Despite being only one and a half times as dense as air it’s also one of the strongest materials in the world as well as being one of the most resistant to heat.

Aerogel and flower

It’s even been used in the depths of space by the Stardust probe to collect cosmic dust and comet fragments:

Aerogel Collector

Mounted Aerogel

4 thoughts on “Aerogel

  1. Do you have some in the science labs?

    It looks fun to play with. 500g of aerogel can apparently lift half a ton. I’d like to try it.

  2. that is too cool….

    like me…spending my half term hours checking out my physics teachers website…

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