KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Impressions on the shroud of Turin apparently were caused by a natural form of X-ray, a researcher who examined revered cloth says.
'The images are not fake,' Dr. Giles F. Carter, an archaelogical chemist from Eastern Michigan University, said Tuesday. Many Christians believe the shroud bears the image of Jesus Christ.
Carter presented his research results at the 184th national meeting of the American Chemical Society. The chemical convention began Sunday and continues through Friday.
'All scientists who investigated the shroud in 1978 believe the images were not painted, dyed, stained, rubbed or otherwise applied by man,' he said.
Some researchers have said light may have caused the images, but Carter said X-rays are a more likely source because bones and teeth are visible in the image.
Bones can be seen in the image of the hands, Carter said. However, the images of bones were not formed directly by X-rays from bones because the X-rays would have been too energetic, passing right through the fabric without a trace, Carter said.
Some of the high energy X-rays could have reacted with chlorine and silicone in salt and dirt on the surface of the skin, Carter said. Such molecules emit soft X-rays, which could have made images of the body on the shroud.
The bone images in the hand are more intense images of the finger skin between the bone and the fabric, Carter said.
To test his hypothesis, Carter said he made images in linen using X-rays. X-rays scorch yellowish-brown images into the fabric like those found in the shroud.
Some religious groups believe Christ was buried in the shroud and it records his front and back images. Scientists have studied it extensively but do not agree on how the images of a body were formed.
The team of scientists that investigated the shroud in 1978 reported the images are caused by dehydration and oxidation of cellulose fibers in the linen -- the same kind of chemical effect caused by X-rays, Carter said.
Carter said his X-ray hypothesis also explains the three-dimensional nature of the shroud image, which was discovered by the 1978 scientific team using a 3-D image analyzer.
Carter said that X-rays from different levels of skin caused the variable intensity of the image. The fainter portions of the image are from farther away, he said, because X-rays were partially absorbed by the air between.
