{"id":822,"date":"2017-11-27T10:10:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T10:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/?p=822"},"modified":"2017-11-27T10:10:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T10:10:37","slug":"cosmic-rays-have-revealed-a-new-chamber-in-egypts-great-pyramid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/?p=822","title":{"rendered":"Cosmic rays have revealed a new chamber in Egypt\u2019s Great Pyramid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cosmic rays may have just unveiled a hidden chamber within Egypt\u2019s most famous pyramid. An international team led by Kunihiro Morishima at Nagoya University in Japan\u00a0used muons, the high-energy particles generated when cosmic rays collide with our atmosphere, to explore inside Egypt\u2019s Great Pyramid without moving a stone. (from newscientist.com)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Muons can penetrate deep into rock, and get absorbed at different rates depending on the density of the rock they encounter. By placing muon detectors within and around the pyramid, the team could see how much material the particles passed through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is more mass, fewer muons get to that detector,\u201d says Christopher Morris at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who uses similar techniques to image the internal structure of nuclear reactors. \u201cWhen there is less mass, more muons get to the detector.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2_khufus-aerial-3d-cut-view-with-scanpyramids-big-void-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By looking at the\u00a0number of muons that arrived at different locations within the pyramid and the angle at which they were travelling, Morishima and his team mapped out cavities within the ancient structure.<\/p>\n

This type of exploration \u2013 muon radiography \u2013 is perfect for sensitive historical sites as it uses naturally occurring radiation and causes no damage to the structure.<\/p>\n

The team mapped the pyramid\u2019s three known chambers \u2013 the subterranean chamber, the Queen\u2019s chamber, and the King\u2019s chamber \u2013 along with connecting corridors. They also detected a new large void above the Grand Gallery that connects the King and Queen\u2019s chamber. This new void is approximately the same volume as the Grand Gallery. The team believes it\u2019s another oversized tunnel similar in dimensions to the Grand Gallery that is at least 30 metres long.<\/p>\n

The team used three different muon detectors, starting with nuclear emulsion film within the Queen\u2019s chamber. Like photographic film is exposed to light to make a photo, the emulsion reacts to muons and makes a record of their paths.<\/p>\n

Once their initial findings indicated a potential cavity, they confirmed it by placing an instrument\u00a0that emits a flash of light when struck by muons within the pyramid. Outside the pyramid, they also used detectors that record muons indirectly when the high-energy particles ionise\u00a0the gas inside. After several months in position to record muons, all three methods confirmed a void in the same location.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s marvelous,\u201d Morris says, noting that the long exposure times increase the robustness of the results. \u201cWhat they\u2019ve seen is fairly definitive,\u201d he says, although it will take drilling and cameras to determine if the cavity is a structural chamber, or a void created by a long-forgotten collapse.<\/p>\n

A team led by Luis Alvarez first tried using muon radiography to map pyramids in 1970, but they were unable to detect new voids. If confirmed, this would be the first newly rediscovered chamber within the Great Pyramid in\u00a0more than\u00a0a century.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to be there when they first stick a camera through a drill hole,\u201d Morris admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s not every day we discover a chamber in a pyramid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journal reference: Nature<\/i>, DOI: 10.1038\/nature24647<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cosmic rays may have just unveiled a hidden chamber within Egypt\u2019s most famous pyramid. An international team led by Kunihiro Morishima at Nagoya University in Japan\u00a0used muons, the high-energy particles generated when cosmic rays collide with our atmosphere, to explore … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions\/824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.nkisiland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}