Since the dawn of humankind, humans have scanned the night sky pondering the
mysteries of the universe, our place in it, and the nature and existence of the
higher force or power that put all of those magical points of light in their place.
Wow. So it's no surprise that occasionally when some of these
celestial bodies came crashing down to earth in the form of meteorites, these
cosmic objects would become highly prized artifacts and in some cases used
to forge fabled blades known for centuries in legend and verse.
In 2016, researchers confirmed that an iron dagger found in King Tut's tomb,
more specifically right next to the thigh of his mummy, was actually made of
iron from a meteorite.
We're talking 3,300 years ago - three millennia and two
hundred years before Egypt hit its iron age. That is freaking magical. It's heavy.
This has some meat to it. Throughout human history, people of note from czars,
to Kings, to Pharaohs have counted blades made of meteorite iron among their most
prized possessions. Oh yep. There's iron in there. This magnet sticks
to it. I can't get the magnet back off. Okay. And well, I want one too. So my quest
is to make one badass sword out of this chunk of iron from the sky.
The first step in my journey is to find out exactly what raw material I'm
working with. Well known for its social activism, UC Berkeley is one of the top
research universities in the world. Further, it is the home of Cosmo Chemist
Dr. Christie Jilly-Rehak. Hi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
Would you like to see the sample? Yes, I would definitely. All right. Now, in case you're
wondering what exactly a cosmochemist researches, just listen to her answer to
this. Do you look at something like this and think about its journey?
Yeah, absolutely. You just think this was in the center of
an asteroid and then he got blasted out by some crazy impact that must have been
huge and then it flies through space for millions of years and somehow eventually
lands on earth. It's, it's wild. Yep, you guessed it. She's a planetary scientist
unlocking the mysteries of our solar system through micro analysis of
extraterrestrial samples. And that's what I brought.