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(meteorobs) micro-meteorite experiment
Thursday January 30, 1997
Dear fellow meteor observers,
I recently started doing some airborn pollen collection experiments and
have been planning to set-up a simultaneous micro-meteorite collecting
experiment similar to the one reported in a past ALPO newsletter in which a
well slide is set outside and then the collected particles are studied
under a light microscope.
Today I consulted with a professor of meteoritics at the University of New
Mexico Institute of Meteoritics about such an experiment. He was
discouraging and said in one month only one micrometeorite would be
collected and it would take one square meter of collection area to do this.
He cautioned that it is extremely difficult to distinguish an
extraterrestrial dust particle from many varieties of terrestrial particles
and that much volcanic debris is similar to space dust. There are many dust
species in the air.
He was encouraging of magnetic collection of micro-meteorite particles in
rain gutters and said that there is no known industrial dust that makes a
spherical magnetic particle like a micro-meteorite does. He also said that
dragging a powerful magnet through undisturbed land might also yield
micro-meteorites.
On a different topic: I was recently told that the Mars meteorite that
displayed possible fossil life signs may not hold life signs after all.
Supposedly the bacteria-like particles were not dissected to check for cell
walls. There will be a space dust meeting in Houston in March and
supposedly there will be many strong challenges to this Martian life
evidence. I can't vouch for any of this but it's what I heard. Should be
more news in March.---Tom Ashcraft