What kind of “X-ray” is this? Flesh and fuel are opaque and metal is transparent?
I think this is t-ray or some other, not x-ray. Any strong guesses?
Probably X-ray with black and white reversed.
If we could see the engine it would be definitive, but I presume this is some sort of thermal imaging.
The wheel hubs are in the image and are quite dark. They would be bright on a standard x-ray, dark on a reversed image. On thermal imaging, the rubber should be bright, as it is, while the hub would be darker.
Several people, notably the person standing on the left, have a bright central chest (mediastinum) and dark lungs. This is how a standard x-ray would look, dark lungs, bright heart. Thermal imaging should also give this appearance, as the lungs are full of relatively cool air, but the abdomen is warmer.
The ground should be dark on x-ray, bright on thermal, so again, thermal. I don’t understand while the boxy thing on the left - fuel tank ? - is bright, unless it’s from sloshing.
I’m pretty sure this is a backscatter x-ray image. So the x-rays didn’t pass through the truck and the people in it. Rather the x-rays were scattered back from them. So you don’t get the classic absorption images one associates with x-rays. It is more akin to shining light onto them and getting the scattered light back - except that the light will pass through things as well.
Francis Vaughan is right. It’s backscatter X-ray, which is commonly used to inspect trucks and shipping containers. It’s the same technology used at some airports as full-body scanners. (Though millimeter wave seems to be more common for this application.)
And the backscatter x-ray is completely digital. So the rendering can be done in whatever style the operator chooses. Or that the software supports any way.
I saw a similar picture in an article on border security, in Pop Sci I think. They said it can see piston heads in an engine.
I concur, backscatter X-ray. There are similar pictures in this Forbes article:
So it IS an X-ray, though not a typical shadowgraph type. Ignorance fought! Thanks!
Cool. Thanks.