Scientists associated with the Exploring the Great Pyramid mission plan to use advanced detectors to map the pyramid. (Image Credit: Jeremy Bezanger/Unsplash)
Scientists affiliated with the Exploring the Great Pyramid (EGP) project announced that they plan to explore the Great Pyramid of Giza's internal structure in great detail using cosmic-ray muons. Doing so could allow them to unlock structural secrets and perhaps even unveil a room's hidden artifacts. This mission emulates the ScanPyramids muon-based project, which discovered large voids in the Great Pyramid. EGP's next-gen telescope could provide 100 times the sensitivity of the Scan Pyramid's project while generating a tomographic image of the structure.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities already granted the team permission to deploy the massive detectors, which still require plenty of funding and time to build. The team received starting funds from Fermilab and the University of Chicago's Big Ideas Generator for the new study. If these advanced detectors map the Great pyramids and discover artifacts in any hidden chambers, then it makes the entire mission worthwhile. Along with potentially uncovering the chambers' hidden secrets, the team also hopes to unlock varying construction techniques implemented to build such an impressive structure.
Exactly how the pyramid's top portion was constructed remains one of the greatest mysteries. A high-res tomographic image can detect density differences to determine if fill-in material like a broken rock or sand rather than cut stone was used for specific regions in the pyramid's upper portion. Plus, density variations could reveal architectural features, including construction staging areas in the image. Of course, using tiny muons can help expose those important aspects.
Muons have often been used for decades by scientists to peer inside unreachable spaces. The Great Pyramid was first explored with this approach by Luis Alvarez in the 1960s. Advancements in muon tomography have led to more discoveries, which peaked with ScanPyramids' Big Void in 2017. Found above the Grand Gallery corridor, this chamber measures 100 feet wide and 20 feet high. In addition, ScanPyramids found a smaller corridor cavity underneath the north side of the pyramid.
The project showed that more discoveries could be made at the pyramid. With that in mind, the EGP mission has taken over this task and plans to surround the monument with extremely sensitive detectors. While ScanPyramids set up handheld devices inside a chamber in the pyramid to collect muons, EGP's detectors are expected to be stationed in large shipping containers, capturing trillions of muons while moving around the pyramid's exterior.
"The Exploring, the Great Pyramid Mission, takes a different approach to imaging large structures with cosmic-ray muons," the team said. "The use of very large muon telescopes placed outside the structure, in our case the Great Pyramid of Khufu on the Giza plateau, can produce much higher resolution images due to the large number of detected muons."
"In addition, by moving the telescopes around the base of the pyramid, true tomographic image reconstruction can be performed for the first time," the researchers stated. "The detector technology employed in the telescopes is well established and prototyping of specific components has already begun."
Telescope development time could take an estimated two to three years. Another three years is required to completely map the pyramid in full resolution, which also requires 100 trillion muons. There are no further plans to continue digging into the pyramids, so muon scans present the next best choice for discovering hidden rooms and other spaces.
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