Scientist Heats Space Shuttle Tiles At 2000 Degrees, Then Touches Them With His Bare Hands

An impressive video has emerged showcasing a scientific experiment regarding thermal conduction. Footage shows Space Shuttle employee touching heated thermal tiles and demonstrates how quickly the outer layer sheds heat, whereas the interior layer retains heat. He picks it up with his bare hands almost immediately after being taken out of a 2000 degree oven, much to onlookers’ amusement! Amazing!

Heat is one of those things that don’t quite make sense. We need a balanced heat in order to survive. The temperature has to be not too hot and not too cold so that we can live on this planet. Our body temperature also regulates whether we stay alive or we die from hypothermia. Even one degree more or less makes a huge difference. This video which occurred in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA on July 7, 2011, shows us just how much heat is relative.

A tourist went to visit the Kennedy Space Center and had fun observing thermal tiles and how they behave. Reportedly, the curious tourist recorded this video during the Kennedy Space Center tour, one day before the launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle for STS-135, i.e. the last Space Shuttle mission. The demonstration was being provided featuring the Space Shuttle thermal tile material and was used to show how quickly the outer layer sheds heat, whereas the interior layer retains heat so that you can pick it up with your bare hands almost immediately after being taken out of a 2000 degree oven. That is very impressive!

Imagine that! A thermal tile managing to cool from 2000 degrees to body temperature in less than a few minutes. How cool is that?! Can you imagine being able to touch a preheated tile only seconds after getting it out of the oven? Would you dare touching this tile, knowing that you can only hold it on the edges, but should avoid the sides? It is a risk we are willing to take for a picture perfect photo! How amazing is that!?

These tiles are made out of a material called LI-900, which is exceedingly refined quartz sand. That insane capacity to cool off so quickly and allow to be touched—which resembles as cold witchcraft to us—is in reality because of the way that each tile is 94 percent air by volume and 99.9 percent silica glass by the structure. That combo makes it ludicrously terrible at leading warmth, which is the reason those edges are cool to the touch. It's not new tech, but rather it's mind-blowing to find in real life. And they are just begging to be juggled. Impressive indeed!

There's science, and there's enchantment. However, this footage shows the first in its finest form! Observe the warm tiles NASA used to shield transports from absolutely breaking down on their way back to Earth. Would you dare touching one of these freshly baked tiles straight after they have been taken out of the oven? Share your thoughts with us!

What did you think about this video? Make sure you tell us more in the comments down below. If you like what you see, don’t forget to share it with others who might like it as well. It just might be the highlight of their day! Enjoy!