What is the lightest solid material ever made?
It's 99.8% air and can sit on a dandelion without crushing it.
The answer
Aerogels are the lightest solid materials known, with some versions being 99.8% air. They are made by replacing the liquid in a gel with gas through supercritical drying, leaving behind a ghostly, translucent solid with extraordinary properties. Aerogels are superb thermal insulators - NASA uses them to insulate Mars rovers and to capture comet dust at hypervelocity speeds. Despite their ethereal appearance, silica aerogels can support over 1,000 times their own weight and have earned the nickname 'frozen smoke.'
Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- aerogels
- materials science
- NASA
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