Retired Sandia Labs metallurgists suggest the pieces likely have an aluminum coating around a denser internal metal, a known industrial technique. One aluminum die-cast worker proposes the fragments could be sample molds or punch-outs from manufacturing, though experts counter that identical scrap material weighing exactly the same would require extraordinarily precise tooling, something highly unusual for discarded material. Silicon granules found embedded in the surfaces may relate to manufacturing processes rather than extraterrestrial origins.
The episode builds methodically toward the next phase of testing scheduled for late May, when the pieces will finally be analyzed beneath their aluminum surfaces using full EDS spectroscopy. Linda carefully maintains the tension between mundane and extraordinary explanations, noting that even confirming a coated alloy would not settle the question of origin.
Key Moments
Independent metallurgist flags the impossible weight: Howe reports that Edward Stork of Denver, Pennsylvania, calculated that a 99 percent pure aluminum piece measuring 6mm x 6mm x 1mm should weigh 97 milligrams, not the 160 milligrams the university scientist measured for each of the five identical squares - a weight discrepancy of more than 60 percent.
Sandia metallurgist Charlie Mack: aluminum may coat a denser interior: Retired Sandia Laboratory metallurgist Charlie Mack tells Howe that the EDS testing only sampled the outer skin and that the weight discrepancy could mean the squares are aluminum-coated around a denser internal metal - and dismisses the idea that five identical scrap punch-outs could naturally come out at exactly the same volume.
The headline: it cannot be aluminum all the way through: Art summarizes the physical conclusion of round two: given the weight, the fragments cannot be all aluminum - there has to be something else inside - and Howe agrees that if the next round of EDS testing of the cut interior still shows only aluminum, it would be 'a physical impossibility' under known physics.