In 2020, a team of scientists at Purdue University developed the world’s whitest white — a paint color so white it could reflect 98.1% of the sunlight that hits it. That paint formula was designed for hard surfaces like rooftops and pavement, to lower the surface temperature and help combat the urban heat island effect. Then NASA enquired about a space-friendly version of that paint: It had to reflect just as much sunlight, but it also had to be thinner in an industry where it costs $2,720 per kilogram to launch a payload into space (on a SpaceX Falcon 9).
Image: Xiulin Ruan, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, and his students have created the whitest paint on record. (Photo: John Underwood/Purdue University)
