Neutron imaging revealed that a medieval pendant from Germany holds fragments of bone, possibly those of a saint.
For 900 years, a corroded medieval pendant discovered in a trash heap in Germany has been hiding a religious treasure: tiny fragments of bone, possibly from the body of a saint, a new study has found. And further studies might reveal which saint it was.
That doesn't mean it's not there, however. To peer inside, the team used neutron tomography, which creates three-dimensional images when subatomic neutrons are absorbed by materials — in this case, the pendant's case and anything it contained. And although this technique didn't reveal an authentic, further imaging could show such a strip and perhaps the letters written on it.
However, the distinctive artistic style of the pendant suggests that it dates to the 12th century, and that it was already old when it was thrown away, he said. Its style also indicates that it was probably crafted in the workshop near the city of Hanover, about 175 miles north of Mainz, that is known to have made similar objects.
However, the metal and enamel of the pendant absorbed most of the X-rays, and nothing else was visible, Heinzel said. Neutrons are also readily absorbed by hydrogen atoms, so neutron tomography makes high-contrast images of materials derived from living organisms that contain hydrogen, said study co-author Burkhard Schillinger , an instrument scientist at the Technical University Munich's Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Center .
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'Impossible' neutron stars could explain strange flashesKeith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester. He's the author of 'The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence' (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020) and has written articles on astronomy, space, physics and astrobiology for a multitude of magazines and websites.
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