|Issue 13.05 - May 2005
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Cosmic Secrets of the Pyramids
Rants + raves
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In a cramped passageway 25 feet below the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán, Mexico, intrepid scientists are looking for some clue as to who built the 2,000-year-old structure and the city around it. These particular researchers are more Robert Oppenheimer than Indiana Jones: They're peering into the pyramid with muons, subatomic particles created when cosmic rays hit Earth's atmosphere.
Traveling at nearly the speed of light, muons have enormous penetrating power - able to pierce half a mile of solid rock. (Researchers are using them to map lava tubes in active volcanoes and to try to find nuclear contraband in shipping containers.) Physicists with the National Autonomous University of Mexico are using muon density levels to scan Teotihuacán for cavities, perhaps the tombs of the mysterious civilization's rulers. Preliminary experiments suggest their detectors can find voids larger than 2½ feet across. That's big enough to stow a lost ark, isn't it?
- Bijal P. Trivedi