Tut's gem hints at space impact

[Dover]

Tut's gem hints at space impact


Tutankhamun's gem

In 1996 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Italian mineralogist Vincenzo de Michele spotted an unusual yellow-green gem in the middle of one of Tutankhamun's necklaces.
The jewel was tested and found to be glass, but intriguingly it is older than the earliest Egyptian civilisation.

Working with Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat, they traced its origins to unexplained chunks of glass found scattered in the sand in a remote region of the Sahara Desert.

But the glass is itself a scientific enigma. How did it get to be there and who or what made it?

Cont'd

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5196362.stm


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Huge impact crater found in Egypt

A giant crater made by a meteorite impact millions of years ago has been discovered in Egypt's western desert.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4779482.stm

[REP]

1. Wow

Look at the size of this chunk:

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Interesting. We keep learning...

more about the planet's distant past.

The medievel town of Nordlingen, Germany was built in a geological depression and people were fascinated by the curious stone used in local construction. It wasn't that long ago that they found out the town was built in a huge crater from an asteroid hit about 15 million years ago, and the rocks in the areas were morphed with the heat and impact.