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History & Heritage

5.18.2022

Star fragments buried in the Egyptian desert

This stone, found in the Egyptian desert, could be the first physical evidence of an ‘A’-type supernova explosion.

Hypatia is the name of this stone, discovered 27 years ago, and which is the subject of much debate among geologists and astronomers around the world. A 3.5 cm long stone, which could prove in an unprecedented way the existence of an incredibly rare phenomenon. Indeed, it would seem that Hypatia is the first physical proof of an explosion of these supernovas.

An extraterrestrial rock

The researchers began their study with a hypothesis that has now been confirmed: the stone comes from outer space, and more importantly, from outside the solar system. After much research, Hypalia is made up of materials that were not found in the age of the Milky Way’s formation, hence the new problem that the stone is the result of a supernova explosion, in other words, the transformation of a star into a white dwarf that engulfed another star.

Solidified stardust

The supernova becomes too dense and explodes. The gas atoms from the explosion then stick to the particles in the dust cloud. The mixture, of which Hypatia was a part, eventually solidifies millions of years later. The entry of this mass into the earth’s atmosphere, undergoing the heat and pressure of the impact in the desert, caused the rock to crack into millions of pieces, scattered under the Egyptian sand. Egypt would therefore have a desert composed not only of sand but also of fragments of stars!

See also

Dubai: a rough ruby at a record price

 

Published on 18 May 2022

#Egypt