The Great Pyramid of Giza is perhaps the most iconic structure man has ever built. Ancient civilizations built these archeological icons, which is a testament to their greatness and tenacity. A team of scientists plans to scan this historic building using cosmic rays. Like what, and for what?
Using High Energy Physics (HIP), they will scan the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza with cosmic ray muons. Muons are elementary particles similar to electrons but more massive. They are used in tomography because they penetrate deep into structures. Deeper than X-rays can. Cosmic ray muons are created when high-energy particles known as cosmic rays strike Earth's atmosphere.
Whereas cosmic rays are atomic fragments, high-energy protons and atomic nuclei, which are constantly flowing to Earth from the Sun, outside the Solar System, and outside galaxies. When these particles collide with Earth's atmosphere, the collision produces a rain of secondary particles. Some of those particles are muons.
A Deeper Look at the Pyramids
They wanted to look deeper into the Great Pyramid than ever before, and map out its internal structure. The effort, as quoted from Universe Today, is called the Explore the Great Pyramid (EGP) mission.
The Great Pyramid of Giza has been around since the 26th century BC. This building is the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops. The construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza took about 27 years, and is built with about 2.3 million stone blocks which are a combination of limestone and granite, weighing about 6 million tons.
For more than 3,800 years, it has been the tallest man-made structure in the world. We now only look at the core structure that underlies the Great Pyramid. Meanwhile, the outer layer of fine white limestone that enveloped him had been erased over time.
The Great Pyramid is well studied, and over the years, archaeologists have mapped the structure of its interior. The pyramid and the ground below contain different rooms and passages. Khufu's room (Cheops), is located roughly in the middle of the pyramid.
Recently, the archeology team used several high-tech methods to investigate the inside of the pyramids more thoroughly. In the late 1960s, American physicist Luis Alvarez and his team used muon tomography to scan the interior of the pyramids. In 1969, Alvarez reported that they inspected 19% of the pyramids and found no new chambers.
In 2016-2017, the ScanPyramids team used a non-invasive technique to study the Great Pyramid. Like Alvarez, they use muon tomography, along with infrared thermography and other tools. Their most significant discovery was the "Big Void", a large void found above the Grand Gallery. The discovery was published in the journal Nature and is considered one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the year.
"We plan to use a telescope system that has a sensitivity up to 100 times higher than the equipment recently used at the Great Pyramid, will photograph muons from almost any angle and, for the first time, will produce true tomographic images of such a large structure," writes researchers explain their mission, reported by Universe Today, Thursday (2/3/2022).
The EGP mission will use very large telescope sensors that are moved to various positions outside the Great Pyramid. The detector will be assembled in a temperature controlled shipping container for easy transportation. Each unit will be 12 m long, 2.4 m wide and 2.9 m high. Their simulation used two muon telescopes, and each telescope consisted of four receptacles.
There will certainly be resistance when scientists use modern high-energy physics to investigate one of mankind's most ancient archaeological treasures. Some Egyptologists seem to object and may view the physicists as smugglers. They may not like physicists who use mysterious particles from outer space to unmask the ancient past. On the other hand, findings like this will reveal more insights about mankind.