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Space Particles to 'X-Ray' Hidden Pyramids

Sarah Goforth, Discovery News

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Muon Tomography

"The detectors are more robust and somewhat less expensive today, and no other technology has proven to be superior for imaging such large structures," Schwitters said.

He and a team of graduate students have built and are testing a prototype detector, which weighs about 200 pounds (lightweight compared to the original, which weighed almost a ton). They hope to begin field work in Belize by the spring of 2009.

There are other ways to study buried structures without disturbing them, such as ground-penetrating radar. But muon tomography has an advantage because muons penetrate so deeply into the ground -- on average, a few miles rather than a few hundred feet, as is the case with radar.

"It's not practical to consider when we're talking about going in 50 meters," said Schwitters.

Still, the technique hasn't caught on widely.

"To my knowledge, no one is using [muon tomography] in mainstream archaeology," said Kenneth Kvamme, an anthropologist at the University of Arkansas and editor of the journal Archaeological Prospection, which specializes in underground studies.

In the future, that could change, said Schwitters.

"This technology, even though it sounds futuristic, could hold promise as an energy source for looking in the ground in ways we have never considered before," added Conyers.

Related Links:

University of Texas: Roy F. Schwitters

Ground-penetrating radar mapping

Nobel Laureate: Luis Alvarez

Council for the Advancement of Science Writing