Jul 29, 2022 06:43 AM
https://www.sciencealert.com/an-impossib...-bomb-test
EXCERPT: . . . The energy release, equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, vaporized the 30-meter test tower (98 ft) and miles of copper wires connecting it to recording equipment. The resulting fireball fused the tower and copper with the asphalt and desert sand below into green glass – a new mineral called trinitite.
Decades later, scientists discovered a secret hidden in a piece of that trinitite – a rare form of matter known as a quasicrystal, once thought to be impossible. "Quasicrystals are formed in extreme environments that rarely exist on Earth," geophysicist Terry Wallace of Los Alamos National Laboratory explained last year. "They require a traumatic event with extreme shock, temperature, and pressure. We don't typically see that, except in something as dramatic as a nuclear explosion."
Most crystals, from the humble table salt to the toughest diamonds, obey the same rule: their atoms are arranged in a lattice structure that repeats in three-dimensional space. Quasicrystals break this rule – the pattern in which their atoms are arranged does not repeat... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: . . . The energy release, equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT, vaporized the 30-meter test tower (98 ft) and miles of copper wires connecting it to recording equipment. The resulting fireball fused the tower and copper with the asphalt and desert sand below into green glass – a new mineral called trinitite.
Decades later, scientists discovered a secret hidden in a piece of that trinitite – a rare form of matter known as a quasicrystal, once thought to be impossible. "Quasicrystals are formed in extreme environments that rarely exist on Earth," geophysicist Terry Wallace of Los Alamos National Laboratory explained last year. "They require a traumatic event with extreme shock, temperature, and pressure. We don't typically see that, except in something as dramatic as a nuclear explosion."
Most crystals, from the humble table salt to the toughest diamonds, obey the same rule: their atoms are arranged in a lattice structure that repeats in three-dimensional space. Quasicrystals break this rule – the pattern in which their atoms are arranged does not repeat... (MORE - details)