Scientists hope to reveal the inner mysteries of the Great Pyramid of Giza using cosmic rays.
Although the concept of use cosmic rays to observe inside the pyramids It may sound like something out of fiction, it’s based on solid science.
The research will be carried out using an imaging technique that uses subatomic particles called muonsin the same way that x-ray images are used.
Muons are created when cosmic rays hit our atmosphere. These subatomic particles are incredibly efficient at penetrating thick layers of solid material and can penetrate up to a kilometer of solid bedrock.
The team of scientists, led by Fermilab High Energy Physics (HEP) researcher, Alan D.Brosswill use the method, similar to a technique first adopted by Luiz Alvarez in the 1950s, to study mysterious voids in the pyramid.
Between 2015 and 2017, the Scan Pyramids project conducted a series of scans that analyzed muons for voids.
Illustration of the interior of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Scientists from the Scan Pyramids project reported the discovery of two previously unknown voids in the Great Pyramid in a paper published in 2017. Credit: Scan Pyramids Mission.
Now the researchers plan to scan the Great Pyramid again, but this time with a more powerful system that will analyze the muons in more detail.
In an interview with living sciencesAlan Bross said he and his team are an eclectic mix of archaeologists and physicists, who have obtained permission from the Egyptian government to use highly sensitive cosmic ray technology to scan the Great Pyramid of Giza, to reveal what which could be a camera.
The cosmic ray muon imaging method used presents a very powerful tool that can see deep into the structure of the Great Pyramid and search for “hidden” chambers or voids.
In particular, scientists will try to find out if the larger of the two voids revealed by previous scans could be a passage leading to the burial chamber of the pharaoh cheops.
Cosmic rays and muons to reveal the secrets of the Great Pyramid
Muons are negatively charged elementary particles that are produced when cosmic rays collide with atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere. Every square meter on the planet is thought to be bombarded with around 10,000 muons per minute, and researchers have previously modeled the internal structure of the pyramid by measuring the flux of these particles through solid rock.
A scan of the Great Pyramid of Giza could finally reveal what’s inside from mysterious cavities detected inside.
Since muons can be obstructed by stones, the speed at which these particles hit the receiver was strongly influenced by the cavities above the surface. Queen’s bedroom. This allowed researchers reveal the presence of two previously undetected voids in the Great Pyramidone of which was 30 meters (~100 feet) long.
Until now, it is not known if these secret openings house the remains of an ancient pharaoh or if they simply played a functional role in the construction of the pyramid, which is why the study recent projects to examine them in more detail. However, this will require the creation of a fairly sophisticated device.
“We plan to install a telescope system that has over 100 times the sensitivity of equipment that has recently been used in great pyramidwill image muons from almost any angle and, for the first time, produce a true tomographic image of such a large structure,” the scientists said.
“We are currently in the process of building the prototype telescope,” Bross added.
Once built, this equipment will likely be too large to fit inside the pyramid, meaning it won’t be used to measure the muon flux falling through the stone from above. Instead, the team plans to take measurements from multiple angles around the exterior of the structure.
built by him pharaoh cheops Around 4,500 years ago, the Great Pyramid of Giza was extensively explored by archaeologists in the 19th century. Digging into the deepest bowels of the ancient marvel, excavators found three internal cavities, known as the King’s Chamber, containing a stone sarcophagus, possibly belonging to Khufu himself, the Chamber of Queen and the Grand Gallery.
You might also be interested in: The mummy of a pharaoh who lived 3,500 years ago is digitally “unwrapped”.
In addition to revealing the secrets of this individual pyramid, considered one of the wonders of the ancient worldthe system could also teach archaeologists building techniques used in Egypt millennia ago.
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