[meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites

From: Erik Fisler <erikfwebb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:33:43 -0700
Message-ID: <COL119-W5075D8C5AD6F4CD454DCF1A45E0_at_phx.gbl>

Eric, try this:
?One way to collect micrometeorites is to set a large shallow tray of
water outside for a couple days. You should see some residue on the
bottom in time. Cover a magnet with Saran wrap, wax paper or some other
type of material. Pick up magnetic material in tray with your magnet
and set on paper to dry. Observe material with a good- strong
microscope. Some of what you see will be spherical balls- those are the
micrometeorites.

Steve from the nuggetshooter forum(http://www.nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=4) posted that 2 years ago.? There were great links and photos but the sites are long gone.? I quote, "If you're not having any luck hunting macrometeorites, try hunting micrometeorites. You'll never get skunked."

Can someone with a microscope try this and post pictures if they can?

[Erik]

----------------------------------------
> From: gmhupe at htn.net
> To: sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net
> Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:22:09 -0500
> CC: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites
>
> Hi Sterling,
>
> I always enjoy your 'down-to-earth' reasoning! Thank you! :-)
> Greg
>
> ====================
> Greg Hupe
> The Hupe Collection
> NaturesVault (eBay)
> gmhupe at htn.net
> www.LunarRock.com
> IMCA 3163
> ====================
> Click here for my current eBay auctions:
> http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZnaturesvault
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sterling K. Webb"
> To: "Meteorites USA" ; "Meteorite-list"
>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:05 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites
>
>
>> Hi, Eric,
>>
>> The Earth collects dust. Not just from meteors
>> and meteoroids burning up in the atmosphere
>> but directly from space. The Earth gravitationally
>> collects solar wind particles, zodaical dust,
>> interplanetary dust, interstellar dust, cometary
>> dust, dust from a variety of sources. Whoops! I
>> left out intergalactic dust...
>>
>> Dust falls in slowly and takes months (or years)
>> to settle to the surface. It can be measured in the
>> layers of ocean sediments and icecap cores.
>>
>> How much dust accumulates is hard to measure,
>> so the amount has been a long-running question.
>> Here's a really good discussion of the dust question:
>> http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/moon-dust.html
>> although it's in the context of an "age of the Earth"
>> argument with Creationists.
>>
>> Interplanetary dust is hard to analyse because it's so tiny:
>> http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/simple_template.cfm?code=resources_dust&CFID=4156261&CFTOKEN=70584526
>>
>> Here's an interview with Don Brownlee ("Mr. Dust"):
>> http://euro.astrobio.net/interview/742/extraterrestrial-capture
>>
>> A good summary of all the kinds of dust from "out there":
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_dust
>>
>> Or, just Google "interplanetary dust" and you will
>> find many, many sources of information on dust infall:
>> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=interplanetary+dust+&aq=f&aql=&aqi=&oq=
>> then Google "interstellar dust" and Google "zodaical dust"
>> and...
>>
>> Space is dusty. The Earth is dusty. And best of all,
>> the Internet is dusty. Lots of information out there.
>>
>> Best of all, you can collect rainwater, then extract the
>> metallic dust from it with magnets. Most of the dust will
>> be human produced smoke dust, but the tiny dull metallic
>> spheres are probably "cosmic" dust. Every time you walk
>> out the door, you're stepping on cosmic dust. It's everywhere.
>> If you spend a fair amount of time out in the open air, you
>> probably have some cosmic dust incorporated into your body.
>>
>> I'm going to stop now, before I start singing that Joni
>> Mitchell song...
>>
>>
>> Sterling K. Webb
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Meteorites USA"
>> To: "Meteorite-list"
>> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 9:26 PM
>> Subject: [meteorite-list] Dumb Questions About Meteors & Meteorites
>>
>>
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>
>>> I'm not too sure how to broach the subject without stepping on toes, so I
>>> say this will all due respect to everyone who would be offended by the
>>> questions.
>>>
>>> I've been reading "Meteorites" by Caroline Smith, Sara Russell, and
>>> Gretchen Benedix, Firefly Books, 2009. Lovely book, with lots of
>>> information on meteorites, their origins, and composition, with loads of
>>> illustrations and great photography.
>>>
>>> As I was flipping through I found a mention about the total weight of
>>> meteoritic material which falls on our planet every year. On page 89 it
>>> states "...approximately 40,000-60,000 t of extraterrestrial material
>>> lands on Earth every year, the majority of which is in the form of tiny
>>> dust grains usually less than 1 mm (1/25 in) in size; importantly, most
>>> of this dust is believed to originate from comets..."
>>>
>>> Doesn't this go against what science tells us about meteor showers? Don't
>>> the particles and sand-grain sized particles burn up in the atmosphere
>>> like science tells us they do? And if they don't burn up completely why
>>> does just about every text on meteors say they do? And if that the case,
>>> then how is it possible to weigh something that doesn't exist, anymore?
>>>
>>> I've read this in other places as well, some sources say that there is
>>> thousands of tons to millions of tons of meteoritic material landing on
>>> Earth every year. Yet...
>>>
>>> We all "know" that small dust to sand grain sized particles burn up high
>>> in the atmosphere, and there is debate on what it takes, or rather how
>>> large meteoroids must be to reach the ground and become meteorites. We
>>> know Asteroid 2008 TC3 was small but much larger than dust. So if a 3-6
>>> meter asteroid can hit Earth, how small of a piece of debris can make it
>>> to Earth through the atmosphere? How big was Whetstone Mountain before
>>> entering our atmosphere? There was not much of that piece recovered, and
>>> the video showed 3 distinct fragments flying briefly through the field of
>>> view of the camera. West Texas was a daylight fireball seen from hundreds
>>> of miles away, and it produced a good bit of material. Buzzard Coulee
>>> too. These recent meteorite falls have been hunted by a large number of
>>> very professional meteorite hunters and scientists and yet the TKW of the
>>> falls are small except maybe the BC fall. Buzzard Coulee had a HUGE 13
>>> kilo piece http://www.skyriver.ca/astro/bruce/marsden_meteorite%205.JPG
>>> that impacted the ground and hundreds of other smaller stones recovered.
>>>
>>> So how big "does" a meteoroid have to be to reach the ground? Do we
>>> really know?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Eric Wichman
>>> Meteorites USA
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Received on Tue 26 Jan 2010 02:33:43 AM PST