Things You Don’t Know About Aerogels

Aerogel looks like "weak and windy", but it's actually very strong and durable. It can withstand pressure thousands of times its own mass, and will only melt when the temperature reaches 1200 degrees Celsius. In addition, its thermal conductivity and refractive index are also very low, and its insulating ability is 39 times stronger than the best glass fiber. Because of these characteristics, aerogel has become an irreplaceable material in space exploration. Both the Russian Mir space station and the US Mars Pathfinder probe use it for thermal insulation.

The application of aerogel in aerospace is far more than that. NASA’s "Stardust" spacecraft is carrying it on a very important mission in space—collecting comet particles. Scientists believe that comet particles contain the most primitive and oldest matter in the solar system. Studying it can help humans understand the history of the sun and planets more clearly. In 2006, the "Stardust" spacecraft will return to Earth with the first samples of comet and star dust obtained by mankind.

But collecting comet star dust is not an easy task. Its speed is equivalent to 6 times that of a rifle bullet. Although its volume is smaller than sand grains, when it comes into contact with other substances at such a high speed, its physical and chemical composition has It may change or even be completely evaporated. Now that scientists have aerogels, this problem has become very simple. It is like an extremely soft baseball glove that can gently reduce the speed of comet dust, making it stop slowly after sliding for a distance 200 times its own length. After entering the "aerogel glove", the stardust will leave a carrot-like trajectory. Since the aerogel is almost transparent, scientists can easily find these particles according to the trajectory. [3]