Aerogel: Glass that is 99.8% air gets put through the paces
- August 26th, 2008
- 10 Comments
The world’s lightest known solid, Aerogel, weighs only three times as much as air. As air, mind you. You could practically breathe the stuff, but you wouldn’t want to because, basically it’s glass. Really, really, fluffy glass.
It has been used by NASA as insulation for the Mars Pathfinder Rover. Not only is it a great insulator, but it is also made from silicon dioxide, so it can do other glass-like activities. NASA recently used it in the Stardust mission as a collector plate for comet & interstellar dust samples.
The stuff is also incredibly expensive, but that didn’t stop Jason Wells from putting it through the paces. He fried it, shocked it, froze it, baked it, soaked it and eventually smashed it. It’s all highly documented, with pictures, and makes for some good lunchtime reading. Especially since you’re never going to go out and actually buy the stuff.








Keoffryu (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Wtf? I see no story.
stupid comment (Who am I?)
3 months ago
hahahahaha solid air
3X air? isn’t air weigh nothing almost?
Rick (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Of course air has weight. All matter has weight. Just cause you cant see that on a bathroom scale, doenst mean the weight isnt there. Lol
areogel (Who am I?)
3 months ago
You can actually buy this stuff at unitednuclear.com
shiconia (Who am I?)
3 months ago
like i know how much air freakin weighs
xfrostx (Who am I?)
3 months ago
1m cubic of air weights 1kg, so 1m cubic of this stuff would weight 3kg, thats very light, compared to water, 1m cubic of water weights 1 ton
batman (Who am I?)
3 months ago
that is some f-ed up glass
Adam (Who am I?)
3 months ago
3x Air? Thats like saying 7x Happiness
Reply
Wow @ above guy (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Stop taking sXephil’s jokes you fucktard. Get a life.
PooPooBunsMcGee (Who am I?)
2 months ago
How many people here are only here cuz Sxephil mentioned it. I am!! =)