A team of Chinese researchers has reportedly developed a new carbon nanotube-based film that can resist temperatures up to 4,712°F (2,600°C). This new material could have important applications as a scalable insulation for aerospace, energy, or other high-temperature industries.

When things like spacecraft reenter Earth's atmosphere, hypersonic planes fly, or reactors run at high temperatures, they face intense heat, often hotter than lava. Stopping this from happening is challenging, as most insulators fail at temperatures exceeding 2,732°F (1,500 °C).

Some materials are able to cope, but they often conduct too much heat in the process. At very high temperatures, radiation (heat carried by light/photons) becomes the biggest problem, and that's the hardest to block.