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Aerogels are the world's lightest (least dense) solids. They are also excellent thermal insulators and have been used in numerous Mars missions and the Stardust comet particle-return mission. The focus of this video is silica aerogels, though graphene aerogels are now technically the lightest.

At one point Dr. Steven Jones literally held the Guinness World Record for making the lightest aerogel and therefore lightest solid. If you're interested in learning more about aerogels, let me know in the comments as there is a potential trilogy in the works...

Huge thanks to Dr. Stephen Steiner and the crew at Aerogel Technologies. To find out more or buy your own aerogel sample,

Thanks to Dr. Steven Jones and Dr. Mihail Petkov at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

what is in Video:

Before we jump into the details, let's understand what aerogel is all about. As you can see, it's incredibly light, and to put it into perspective, this small cube weighs next to nothing! But don't be fooled by its appearance; it's so much more than just an ordinary piece of foam.

So, what exactly is aerogel? Well, in simple terms, it's a unique solid material that's composed of 99.8% air! That's right; the remaining 0.2% is a solid network of interconnected nanostructures, which gives aerogel its fascinating properties. This extraordinary composition makes it the lightest solid on the planet.

Aerogel was initially developed in the 1930s by a brilliant scientist named Samuel Kistler. However, it wasn't until the 1960s that NASA recognized its potential and began using it in various space missions. One of the most notable applications was as a thermal insulator for the Stardust spacecraft, which collected particles from Comet Wild 2. Imagine how important it is for space missions to have a lightweight material that can protect delicate instruments from extreme temperatures!