A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) have managed to levitate two pieces of plastic using nothing but light.

This is a process known as photophoresis, though this is something that has been used to float invisible aerosols as opposed to objects that we are able to pick up and hold with our hands. 

According to an article on Wired, the pieces of plastic were able to levitate thanks to a set of LEDs that were situated below an acrylic vacuum chamber.

“We didn’t know what we were expecting to see,” said Mohsen Azadi, a mechanical engineering PhD candidate. 

“But we hoped to see something. When the two samples lifted, there was this gasp between all four of us.”

The team are now looking to use this breakthrough to study the mesosphere – the third region of the atmosphere that has temperatures that can fall as low as −101 °C (-150 °F). They hope to release a system laden with sensors that is powered by photophoresis into this area of the atmosphere.

“Sometimes it’s called ignorosphere, in joke. We just don’t have access to it. You can send a rocket for a few minutes at a time, but that’s very different from doing measurements using airplanes or balloons.” said Igor Bargatin, a mechanical engineering professor at UPenn.