Chapter 4: Muony and the Great Pyramid!

One day two human figures appeared in the tinies village. They were tall and their shadows covered the whole village. "Where is the Sun? Is it behind the clouds?", Photony cried. Soon, all the tinies gathered at the centre of the village asking each other what is going on. "Look! Two giants are approaching", Strangy said. Soon, the two giants were standing right above their heads. "Here, you are" the giants said. "Who are you? And what do you want in our village", Downy asked with an angry tone of voice.
"We are humans", the girl replied, "and we are archaeologists". "We're here to ask for your help".  Tinies were surprised. How could these tinies help the human giants? Then, the boy said: "Please let us explain. We really need your help for this project. We can't do it alone." Tinies gathered around them trying to figure out what they were talking about.
The girl started talking again. "There is a large pyramid in Egypt. This is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in Giza. It's called: The Great Pyramid of Giza!". "What is a Pyramid?", Strange asked. "Pyramids were used by ancient Egyptians, many many years ago, as tombs for their Kings, Pharaohs and their Queens. We are still trying to understand how ancient Egyptians moved these huge stones and put them in place so nicely to form the Pyramids. You see, there were no building machines in these ancient times. Archaeologists managed to enter that pyramid several years ago. This was a very difficult task!  Pyramids usually have dangerous passages. Egyptians didn't want anyone to enter their Pharaohs tomb. So, they were placing traps once they had buried their dead. They were also placing many treasures inside the pyramids to accompany the King so they wanted to prevent thieves from entering the Pyramid. Once archaeologists entered the Pyramid, they discovered several small rooms inside it. There are also two larger chambers: The King's chamber and the Queen's chamber. And there is a steep passageway: the Grand Gallery."
"You have entered the Pyramid. So, what is the problem now? Why do you need us?", Toppy wondered. The boy said: "We cannot go upper to the top of the pyramid. We cannot dig inside. We will destroy the structure. We need your help to see what is inside the pyramid without going further up. We know you have magic powers. Please help us discover its hidden secrets!".

"I know what we can do", Muony said. "Let's fly to Egypt". Tinies were altogether so they could use their magic powers. They spun around themselves and flew up to the sky. Once they reached the Earth's atmosphere Muony said: "I need many atoms but most of them without electrons, just the nucleus. Uppy, Downy and Gluony you are in charge. Make several copies of yourselves and merge together." Tinies immediately obeyed the order. Soon, there were many atoms nuclei. "Great!", Muony said happily, "Now fly above the Earth's atmosphere, very high in the sky and get as much energy as you can. Then, run fast and push all other tinies. In the meantime, I will make many copies of myself. You will push all my copies. We'll be invisible and we'll manage to pass through the walls of the Pyramid". And so they did. A group of tinies went upwards, to the deepest part of the sky, and then came back and gave a huge push to the other tinies. The other tinies pushed the copies of Muony. Muonies became invisible and entered the Great Pyramid! Once they were in the Pyramid they passed through the walls and discovered all the chambers that the archaeologists described. But they also saw another chamber. It was large but it was neither the King's nor the Queen's chamber. Soon, they came out again.

"I have great news", Muony said to the archaeologists. "There is another chamber near the top of the Pyramid. Look at the map we created. We couldn't see very well but the chamber is either in the red or the blue area. We'll need to go again to draw a more detailed map." The two archaeologists were excited. "Thank you so much for your discovery!! You did what we couldn't do for thousands of years! Don't worry we can try again to see all the details but I guess you're already very tired now! Return to your village and we'll go back to our team and report the news. All archeologists will be very happy with this discovery! Thank you Muony! Thank you tinies!"
Tinies returned to their village. They were exhausted but very satisfied! They helped humans discover a part of their history. Pyramids are there for thousand of years but they still have many unknown secrets! And one thing is for sure: Tinies will help humans again!

Physics Note: This is an allegory to describe how cosmic ray particles were used to unveil the mysteries of Great Pyramid in Egypt. To see through the Great Pyramid, the researches used a technique developed in high-energy particle physics: they tracked particles called muons, our Muonies, which are produced when cosmic rays strike atoms in the upper atmosphere. It's still not clear where cosmic rays originate. Some come from the Sun, but mainly they originate outside the Solar system. Around 100,000 muons rain down on each square meter of Earth's surface every minute. Muons rarely interact with matter. However, enough of them do. Passing through solid rocks stops more of them than passing through the atmosphere. That's why scientists used muons to scan the interior of the Great Pyramid. They placed detectors inside and outside the Pyramid. The idea was, if there are more muons hitting the detector from a direction that wouldn't be expected, they're likely passing through a previously unknown empty space inside the Pyramid. And they found this empty space, a new chamber! Similar techniques have been used to determine the inner structures of volcanoes and to study the damaged nuclear reactor at Fukushima, Japan. Would you like to know more? Visit: https://www.nature.com/news/cosmic-ray-particles-reveal-secret-chamber-in-egypt-s-great-pyramid-1.22939 and https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/astrophysics/muon-imaging-finds-hidden-chamber-in-great-pyramid-of-giza