Scientists say they have identified an entirely new material that formed during the first-ever nuclear bomb test in 1945.
The discovery comes from samples collected after the “Trinity Test” in New Mexico, where the United States detonated the world’s first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. The explosion, equivalent to around 25 kilotons of TNT, melted the desert sand into a glass-like substance later named “trinitite.”
Researchers studying the material recently found a previously unknown crystal structure hidden inside a copper-rich droplet within the trinitite. The material is a type of “clathrate” — a cage-like crystal capable of trapping different atoms inside its structure.
According to geologist Luca Bindi from the University of Florence, the crystal has never been observed before in nature or recreated in a laboratory.
Scientists believe extreme high-energy events like nuclear explosions can create entirely unexpected forms of matter that would otherwise never exist under normal conditions.