Like ScanPyramids before them, EGP will use muon tomography to image the structure’s interior. The Explore the Great Pyramid (EGP) mission uses muon tomography to take the next step in imaging the Great Pyramid. For example, scientists in Italy will use muon tomography to image the inside of the volcanic Mount Vesuvius, hoping to understand when it might erupt again. Recent technological innovations in muon tomography increase its power and lead to new applications. Muon tomography is used in different applications, like examining shipping containers for contraband.
The task in muon tomography is to measure the muons effectively. There’s an unending source of muons from the cosmic rays that constantly bombard Earth. But they travel at near light speed, and at such a high velocity, they can penetrate deeply before they decay.
Muons are unstable and decay in only a couple of microseconds or millionths of a second. Credit: By Synta圎rror55 at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 An air shower is a cascade of secondary decay particles, including muons, indicated with the symbol ?. This diagram shows what happens when a primary cosmic particle collides with a molecule of atmosphere, creating an air shower. When these particles collide with Earth’s atmosphere, the collision produces showers of secondary particles. Cosmic rays are fragments of atoms-high-energy protons and atomic nuclei- that constantly stream into Earth from the Sun, outside the Solar System, and outside the galaxy. More deeply than even X-rays can.Ĭosmic ray muons are created when high-energy particles known as cosmic rays slam into Earth’s atmosphere. They’re used in tomography because they penetrate deeply into structures. Muons are elementary particles similar to electrons but more massive. The discovery was published in the journal Nature and is considered one of the most significant scientific discoveries that year. Their most significant discovery is the “ Big Void,” a massive void above the Grand Gallery. Like Alvarez before them, they used muon tomography, along with infrared thermography and other tools. In 2016-17, the ScanPyramids team used non-invasive techniques to study the Great Pyramid. In 1969, Alvarez reported that they examined 19% of the pyramid and found no new chambers. In the late 1960s, American Physicist Luis Alvarez and his team used muon tomography to scan the pyramid’s interior. In recent times, archaeological teams have used some high-tech methods to probe the insides of the pyramids more rigorously. The inner and outer lines indicate the pyramid’s present and original profiles. This figure is an elevation diagram of the interior structures of the Great Pyramid.