*NEWSBITES

TURIN - Once and for all, says an Italian scientist, it's time to solve the mystery of the Shroud of Turin, the centuries-old linen cloth that bears the image of a crucified man that tradition holds to be Jesus Christ.

A newly published study by Giulio Fanti -- professor of mechanical and thermic measurements at the University of Padua, who has made virtually a life's work of the puzzle -- zeroes in on as corona (energy) discharge as the most probable hypothesis to explain the formation of the body image.

In an article published in the American magazine Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, Fanti writes that this particular form of electromagnetic energy -- coming from Jesus Christ's resurrecting body -- might have formed the image.

"Ever since 1898, when the photographer Secondo Pia took the first photographs of the Turin Shroud, many researchers have advanced hypotheses to account for the body image creation," Fanti says.

In his article, he considers the most important hypotheses and confronts them with the 24 main features of the Shroud. He concludes that electromagnetic radiation was responsible for the formation of the image.

According to Fanti, the corona discharge hypothesis "meets all the peculiar features of the body image of the Shroud." But in order to obtain an image of that size, "a voltage of dozens of million of volts would have been necessary; or, leaving the scientific field, a phenomenon connected with the resurrection" might have occurred, says the professor.

Such is the delicate line between the science of faith, and faith in science.

Read more from La Stampa in Italian - Original article by Andrea Tornielli

Photo - Wikipedia

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