Some of the material in this essay is obsolete. Please refer to the
Shroud of Turin Story Home Page

The
Resurrection
Problem
and the
Shroud of Turin

By Daniel R. Porter

1. Introduction
2. "Ann, You're Nuts"
3. What we need to know 
4. The newer evidence
5. The resurrection problem
6. Vetting
7. Acceptance
8. Textile studies
9. Plant images and pollen
10. Travertine aragonite
11. Sudarium of Oviedo
12. The Image of Edessa
13. Jesus in art
14. A negative that is not a negative
15. Other visual characteristics
16. The most intriguing characteristic
17. A picture of a million words
18. How were the images formed ? 
19. Appendix: Carbon 14, etc.

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Part 16:  The Most Intriguing Characteristic of All

When we look at the Shroud's fabric microscopically, we see that each thread is made up of hundreds of tiny fibers. These fibers are about 10 to 30 microns in diameter, less than the thickness of most human hair. The cloth itself is somewhat discolored with age. Aging results in oxidation and dehydration, a chemical change to the fibers of the cloth. Where there is image on the cloth, which is straw yellow, it is because some discrete lengths of some of the fibers exhibit more (accelerated) oxidation and dehydration. It is as if certain parts of some fibers have aged more quickly. Put enough of these discrete, microscopic lengths of straw-yellow color together and you see an image.

Scientists who have studied the nature of the Shroud's image commonly refer to the lengths of discoloration as pixels. Look at a computer display with a magnifying glass and you will see small dots. Computer programmers, who write graphics software, write programs to control the pixels to create images on the screen. The pixels, on the Shroud however, are not dots but discrete lengths of fiber. Kevin Moran, a technology specialist with Kodak who has conducted extensive microscopic evaluation of Shroud fibers, tells us that the discrete lengths of image fiber can be from a millimeter to less than 200 microns (0.2 millimeters) in length.

The pixels, themselves, are all of a single tone of yellow. Moran has concluded that the image-causing discoloration of the pixels is about 30% darker than the rest of the Shroud. What we perceive as different shades of color on the Shroud is the result of pixel density (the number of pixels concentrated in any given area of the cloth). It is not unlike black and white halftone pictures in a magazine or newspaper in which different shades of gray are achieved by applying fewer or more dots of black ink at any place in the picture. Another example is the engravings found in old books, where shading is accomplished by concentrations of etched lines. What is different about the Shroud is that this effect is implemented at a microscopic level.

In a recent technical paper entitled "Optically Terminated Image Pixels Observed on Frei 1978 Samples," (the 1978 Frei samples are fibers collected with sticky tape by Forensic criminologist Max Frei) Kevin Moran describes the image pixels as he and co-researchers observed them:

The individual image pixels have very sharp boundaries at their ends across the 15-micron diameter of the fibers. When seen at a magnification of 200 power, these pixels show uniformly darkened area over the natural color of the non-imaged fiber. At the boundary between the image pixel and the clear fiber, there is a sharp change. There is no gradual edge as expected from a shadow mask or external light source...

The fact that the pixels don't fluoresce suggests that the conversion to their now brittle dehydrated state occurred instantly and completely so no partial products remain to be activated by the ultraviolet light. This suggests a quantum event where a finite amount of energy transferred abruptly...

The image appears darker where the cloth was closer to the body. Thus, proximity results in more pixels or longer pixels. The only plausible explanation that scientists have been able to arrive at is that some yet unknown form of radiation was emitted from the body with enough intensity to chemically alter the fiber.

Kevin Moran continues:

The unique front-and-back-only image can be best described as gravitationally collimated. The radiation that made the image acted perfectly parallel to gravity. There is no side image. The radiation is parallel to gravity and, if moving at light speed, only lasted about 100 picoseconds. It is particulate in nature, colliding only with some of the fibers.

It is not a continuum or spherical-front radiation that made the image, as visible or UV light. It is not the X-ray radiation that obeys the one over R squared law that we are so accustomed to in medicine. It is more unique.

It is suggested that the image was formed when a high-energy particle struck the fiber and released radiation within the fiber at a speed greater that the local speed of light. Since the fiber acts as a light pipe, this energy moved out through the fiber until it encountered an optical discontinuity, then it slowed to the local speed of light and dispersed.

Dan Porter is an Episcopalian and a member of Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City. He may be contacted by email at porter@shroudstory.com or by mail at 20 McIntyre Street, Bronxville, NY 10708. 

(c) Copyright 2001, Daniel R. Porter. All Rights Reserved. This article may be reproduced in full for any non-commercial purpose without further permission.