Stone found in Egypt in 1996 offers clues about supernovas
Researchers say that the stone's composition has never been observed before, and their main hypothesis involves a type Ia supernova, one of the brightest phenomena in the universe.
CAIRO — Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat found an odd stone in the vast desert of southwestern Egypt in December 1996. At first glance, the shiny object seemed to be Libyan desert glass, a unique type of rock mainly composed of yellow silica and common in this area east of the Sahara.
“The Libyan glass area is filled with strange material of unknown origin,” Barakat told Al-Monitor. “One day, after the fajr prayer, I started walking around. And I saw a small black but bright rock on the ground.”
