![]() This research is part of a larger effort by NIST to strengthen forensic science so that judges, juries and investigators have reliable, science-based information when deciding guilt or innocence. It’s also developing methods so that, instead of just saying whether or not two bullets appear to match, forensic examiners will be able to statistically quantify their degree of similarity. The NIST ballistics team is developing methods for comparing bullets using 3D surface maps, which can provide greater detail and accuracy than comparing two-dimensional images. If the striations on a pair of bullets - or on microscopic photographs of those bullets - line up, examiners might consider them a match. Their regular work has them researching advanced forensic techniques for identifying firearms used in crimes.įor more than a century, forensic examiners have matched pairs of bullets by viewing them under a split-screen comparison microscope. Other members of the team, including mechanical engineers Xiaoyu Alan Zheng and Johannes Soons, used a technique called confocal microscopy to image selected regions of the artifacts at higher resolution.Īlthough this was an unusual project for the NIST ballistics team, its members do spend a lot of time imaging bullet surfaces. This allowed the scans to record the depth of minute scratches in the metallic surface of the artifacts. The focus variation scans had a horizontal resolution of 4 micrometers, about one-tenth the width of a human hair, and a vertical resolution of 0.5 micrometers, or eight times better. Zoom in closer, and you can see the microtopography - ridges and scratches that would be far too fine to feel with your fingertip. ![]() Zoom in, and you can see rifling grooves left by the barrel of the gun. But magnified on the computer screen, it is a world unto itself: a highly complex and undulating terrain that bends, dips and doubles back. If you held one of the original fragments in the palm of your hand, you would see that the metal is warped and twisted into a complex shape. “I’ve stared at them so much I can draw them from memory.” “It was like solving a supercomplicated 3D puzzle,” Renegar said. Renegar and NIST physical scientist Mike Stocker spent countless hours rotating the metal fragments beneath the lens of the microscope to image every facet, then stitching the image segments together where they overlapped. As the lens moved across the object, it built a 3D surface map of the microscopic landscape beneath it, like a satellite mapping a mountain range. By analyzing which parts of those images were in focus, the microscope measured the distance to the object’s surface features. At each location along the object’s surface, the microscope created a series of images at different focal distances. In the lab, the NIST ballistics team used a technique called focus variation microscopy to image the artifacts. Edwin Walker that was thought to involve the same firearm. ![]() The collection also includes two bullets produced by test firing the assassin’s rifle, and a bullet that was recovered following an earlier, failed assassination attempt on Army Maj. That one is known as the “stretcher bullet” because it was found lying near Connally at the hospital. In addition to the two fragments from the bullet that fatally wounded the president, the digital collection includes another bullet that struck both the president and Texas Gov. “In some respects, they are better than the originals in that you can zoom in to see microscopic details,” she said. “The virtual artifacts are as close as possible to the real things,” said Martha Murphy, deputy director of government information services at the National Archives. This project will allow the Archives to release the 3D replicas to the public while the originals remain safely preserved in their temperature and humidity-controlled vault. Why do this, so many years after President Kennedy’s tragic death? The mission of the National Archives is to provide the public with access to artifacts such as these, and it receives many requests for access to them. Viewing the digital replicas on his computer screen, Renegar said, “It’s like they’re right there in front of you.” The National Archives plans to make the data available in its online catalog in early 2020. They were transported to NIST so that Renegar and the rest of the NIST ballistics team could scan them and produce digital replicas that are true down to the microscopic details. These artifacts are usually held at the National Archives.
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