So I checked the mail today and found a package from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories. This is not a usual thing for me.
I opened it to find that I had received a small chunk of aerogel as a result of filling out a survey on NASA’s new Stardust-NExT website, a new site about our exploration of comets. Answer some questions about the site’s usefulness and you might get a prize! I filled it out and forgot about it. Until today.
Aerogel is the lightest solid on earth. That’s not hyperbole, it’s listed with Guinness. Invented in 1931 to win a bet, it’s what you get when you replace the liquid in a gel with a gas, and it’s also incredibly strong, extremely resistant to heat, and 1,000 times less dense than glass. NASA uses it to insulate spacecraft (39 times more insulation than fiberglass) and they’ll be using it on the Stardust spacecraft to capture comet particles. It’s been used for the Mars Pathfinder and other rover missions, and it has a variety of earthbound applications such as skylight insulation, drug delivery, heavy metal absorption from water, and tennis racquets. Also, it’s freaking amazing stuff to play with.
It’s like it’s not there. It’s clear and weighs effectively nothing, like solid smoke. On a dark background it glows faintly blue due to the way its honeycomb structure scatters visible light. The edges just fade away to nothingness, it’s like looking at a hologram. The accompanying letter explained all the reasons I shouldn’t touch it — it would absorb the moisture from my hand, leaving an imprint that can’t be removed, any point pressure can scratch or chip it, etc. — but a small chunk had already come off in shipping so I gave that a feel. It’s dry to the touch, like brittle old Styrofoam, and it crumbles very easily. You can see the crack mine has through the middle. But it can also handle very high surface loads, bearing 4,000 times its own weight (just don’t poke it).
The trickiest thing about aerogel? Photographing it with a digital camera. Try as I might I simply could not get my camera to focus on it, or on anything else if it was in the frame. Something about the way it reflects light confuses the hell out of my poor camera; I had to focus on something the same distance away and then face the aerogel with my finger on the button. So keep in mind that the real stuff looks approximately 20-25% cooler than it does here, you just can’t see it.
Now to figure out what to do with it so it won’t get messed up. How do you display solid smoke?
Oh, and when NASA asks you to fill out a survey, do it.
Aw, boo, the contest is over. 😛
That’s wild. It’s almost like it’s science’s version of ectoplasm.
NASA’s ‘solid smoke’: Can its astounding super-insulation property play a role in energy conservation? Will this make home heating by Solar/Wind/Tidal a practical reality? Can we heat/cool battery cars with marginal power from batteries by insulating the cars with this stuff? Can I keep the contents of my fridge cooler,longer, with less power input if it is wrapped in this super-insulation? Will industry be able to reduce its energy bill by application of this super-insulation? Can gardeners insulate greenhouses with this product? Are there other, better, space-age insulators we do not have common knowledge of? What is hidden by patent law? Corporatism’s manipulations? Military secret? Is there really a Depleted Uranium miracle battery concealed by the military? How far are China’s scientists from surpassing America’s in producing new “Miracle Products?” Google, Torrent, “Who Stole the Electric Car” and study the implications of this movie! Do the oil barons have secrets buried by skulduggery or not?
I’m still waiting for them to invent how to make “vacugel”. That’s aerogel with the gas replaced by a vacuum. It not only would be a far better insulator but would float in air. However it will take some doing to make it.
I purchased the granular form of this awhile back as a demonstration, and it has amazing insulating properties. The solid form shown here is VERY expensive, unfortunately… so what he has there might as well be a gem… but you can easily pick up the granular form for a few bucks. The commercial applications are endless.
Oh and as a side note… I think you can buy the stuff from a company called “United Nuclear” if you want to see it for yourself 🙂
It is in the grainy form but will still blow your mind.
Playing with NASA’s solid smoke
Pretty cool, but not all that informative. Did you know you can actually make this stuff (although it’s not super-easy). I heard some kid won a national science fair for doing that.