Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Aerogel is a silicon-based substance often called frozen smoke or blue smoke. It is composed of 99.8% air and is a stiff foam with a density of 3 mg per cm3, which makes it the world's lightest solid. With a highly dendritic-like structure, aerogel has extremely low thermal conductivity which gives it remarkable insulative properties. It has a melting point of 1,200° celsius. Its almost transparent nature makes it suitable for trapping dust particles, as it did aboard the Stardust spacecraft. Aerogel is made by drying a gel composed of colloidal silica in an extreme environment. It is the result of coordinated research between NASA and Aspen Systems, Inc This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.