Mystery deepens over King Tutankhamun’s ‘alien area glass’ after beautiful discovery
Despite boffin’s best efforts the mysterious origins of ‘alien glass’ found decorating King Tut’s tomb has managed to leave scientists stumped
The ‘alien glass’ remains steeped in mystery (Image: De Agostini via Getty Images)
Experts searching for the origins of mysterious “alien space glass” have unearthed a surprising clue on the phenomenon which led to its creation.
The perplexing yellow material called Libyan Desert Glass is scattered across parts of the north African countries such as Libya and Egypt. The strange material is thought to have been created in a violent cosmic event around 29 million years ago. Boffins have now uncovered a rare zircon structure hidden inside the glass.
Zircon is a durable, naturally occurring mineral and is renowned in geology for being the oldest known mineral on Earth. Experts believe the structure may have formed after the mineral completely melted and then crystallised again. Their research suggests the glass was exposed to temperatures above 4,082°F or 2250°C packing enough heat to turn one of Earth’s most durable minerals into a liquid. Geology geniuses believe these crystals contain a microscopic record of the event which led to their creation.
But despite this they still don’t know exactly what happened to prompt this process of extreme heating and rapid cooling. Various boffins believe an asteroid hit the surface of the earth while other state a meteor may have exploded while entering the Earth’s atmosphere releasing enough heat to melt the surface of the desert below.
The discovery of the new crystals still doesn’t settle what exactly happened all those years ago. However the development does help to shed light on the mysterious glass which was used to decorated on the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun by the ancient Egyptians.
The golden glass is used in many treasures of King Tut’s tomb and while numerous studies have strived to figure out how the valuable glass was formed. The latest study to try and uncover this mystery came from the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy.
The researchers examined a single tiny zircon fragments which was hidden within a sample of the glass. The tiny zircon fragment researchers examined was smaller than a human hair. But despite the size the mineral possessed an unusual branching, tree-like structure.
The structure, known as a dendritic texture, is thought to have developed rapidly from molten material while the glass was cooling. The chemical tests revealed the trapped glass was different from the surrounding Libyan Desert Glass.
The piece of glass the researchers were studying contained higher levels of aluminium and zirconium than surrounding Libyan Desert Glass. And experts unexpectedly found there was no evidence of minerals which usually appears when zircon melts and cools.
Surprisingly every crystal the experts examined was zircon. The new study does little to solve the long running debate surrounding the origin of the mysterious “yellow glass.”
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