A new type of “invisibility” cloak could take the heat off hot devices. A theoretical cloak that can shield a protected area from intense temperatures is described online March 26 in Optics Express.
“You can just dress your satellite in a thermal cloak,” says study author Sebastien Guenneau, of the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Aix-Marseille. A heat cloak just 1 or 2 centimeters thick might potentially protect a satellite from overheating as it re-entered the atmosphere, he says.
Until now, most invisibility cloaks have been made from metamaterials that guide light waves around a certain region of space, obscuring anything that lies within from sight. Similar cloaks have been designed to distort the trajectory of sound waves.