That pretty picture is not a pop-art reworking of stained glass, but a microscopic look at titanium aluminide. The metal is tipped to replace turbine blades in jet engines, offering similar strength but half the density of the current nickel alloy.
It’s one of a set of new materials – some of them tested in space – on show at the Science Museum. The ‘intermetallic’ compounds could be used to create more efficient engines and fuel cells.
The mighty metals are part of the European Space Agency’s IMPRESS project, which conducts experiments on the compounds during short space hops aboard a sounding rocket. (Apparently, you can take more accurate measurements of physical properties in weightless conditions.)
The new display can be found in the museum’s Challenge of Materials, on the first floor.
Image courtest of the Science Museum.
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