'Extraterrestrial' matter mystery was born after the first nuclear weapon test in history

On July 16, 1945, the US military conducted the world's first nuclear bomb test in the New Mexico desert with the codename "Trinity".

In an instant, a radioactive plutonium-encased machine known as the "Gadget" exploded, creating a giant fireball that flew into the sky, vaporizing everything it didn't. it touches. The test was successful. 

However, this experiment was not only destructive, it also spawned a new substance.

Researchers next to the metal sphere "Gadget", preparing for the world's first nuclear explosion

In a study published in the June 1 issue of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," researchers say they have discovered unusual crystals known as "quasicrystals" (hypothetical quasicrystals). crystals), they are located in the rocks at the Trinity site.

Accordingly, pseudocrystals are an ordered but non-cyclical structure.

These strange crystals lack the symmetry commonly found in known crystals, they are usually only found in meteorites from the very beginning of the Solar System, and are thought to have been produced only under thermal conditions. the extreme pressures and pressures of the most powerful explosions in the universe.

The structure of a special type of crystal

"To understand other countries' nuclear weapons, we have to understand their nuclear testing programs. We often analyze debris and radioactive gas to understand how weapons are made. or what material they contain. A type of crystal has formed at the site of a nuclear explosion.". The study author said.

When "Gadget" explodes, it creates a ball of fire hotter than the Sun. The heat and force of this explosion was so strong that the surrounding metal and sand melted together forming a new type of crystal, later named Trinitite.

A "blob" inside the Trinitite sample contains an unprecedented quasicrystal.

Semi-crystalline, which has been a theory since 1984, is one where the crystal structure is both ordered and disordered, alternating between two states. But then scientists proved it couldn't, there wasn't anything on Earth like that, because it would require a thermodynamic shock from an incredibly fast collision event. statue.

But using techniques such as electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, they observed six red samples of trinitite. Trinitite is also available in a green color like glass, but the red variety is much rarer because it is the accidental convergence of material from thin copper wires during the explosion.

The world's first and only semi-crystalline type discovered and unique

They finally found the treasure: a small, 20-sided silicon-copper-calcium-iron grain, with 5 times rotational symmetry that is not possible in ordinary crystals.

And it has that magical combination - alternating between order and disorder. It is semi-crystalline. Scientists already know where it formed, what it is, but still do not know specifically how it formed. It's a word puzzle that they are trying to research further for clues.