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Re: (meteorobs) Micrometeorites

Jim: your project sounds very interesting to me. Some years ago at Caltech in Pasadena CA I
heard a talk on the subject and one of the simple collector that one of the graduate students
had used was a child's plastic wading pool placed on top of one of the tallest buildings
filled with water.   I don't know where you live but I would think that one of the best
sources of micro meteorites would be fresh snow fall,  particularly after a good snow pack
has built up.  If you could combine a skiing trip with your search and go to high mountains,
so much the better.  The principal contaminates at higher altitudes would be organic from the
conifers and should be easily floated off in the separation.  However it takes a lot of heat
to melt the snow.  I presume you are getting lots of advice so just hit "Delete"  if this is
just one more too many. LOL    Robert Gardner

Jim wrote:

> In addition to the material I collected off the ground, at the drip line
> behind my house, last night I collected about 3 gallons of rainwater.
>
> I was informed that stony micrometeorites greatly outnumber metalic
> ones. So I will try and strain the rainwater through a coffee filter and
> see what I find.
>
> On good athority I am also informed that "The concentration of
> micrometeorites versus terrestrial grains is about 1 in several
> million".
>
> Not very good odds!
>
> There must be some ways to improve the odds for a amateur micrometeorite
> collector. If there are any better ways, I will try them and report the
> results here.
>
> Again, on good athority here is what I'm looking for.
>
> "What you want to look for is a very porous black grain with a few shiny
> gold grains or  maybe a few colorless to green clear grains inside".
>
> Here is my collection method.
>
> I put a small magnet from a defunct speaker in a ziplock bag. With the
> bag pulled up tight and flat against the magnet I dabbed the ground
> where rain washes off my roof, and hits the ground.
>
> After about 6 to 10 "dab's" I checked with a 10x glass and carefully
> removed the magnet from the side of the baggie so the magnetic material
> fell off onto a white sheet of paper.
>
> Some of the collected material can be seen on these two webpages.
>
> http://sunwatt.mystarbanddot net/micromM2.htm
>
> http://sunwatt.mystarbanddot net/micromM.htm
>
> Last night I hung a clean 5 gal plastic bucket from the top of a fence
> post away from any drip line, or trees. I got about 3 gallons of clean
> rainwater, and tomorrow will try and run that through a coffee filter.
>
> Not sure how to remove solids caught by the filter, but I'm sure I can
> find a way.
>
> Stony micrometeorites are more numerous than metallic ones so thats why
> I'm trying to filter some rainwater.
>
> Maybe I'll get lucky on my first try. <G>
>
> BTW, my equipment is a IntelPlay QX3 microscope at about 60X. Yes, its a
> kids toy microscope. <G> I have a real microscope, but as of now I dont
> have a way to attach a camera to it.
>
> Here are some websites I've found on this subject. They seem to say that
> its fairly "easy" to find micrometeorites.
>
> Maybe thats true, but again maybe not!
>
> The discriptions I've seen also vary quite a bit. So I hope to gather as
> much information as I can and will present it here.
>
> http://www.madsci.org/experiments/archive/913517663.As.html
>
> http://www.discover.com/recent_issue/index.html
> DISCOVER Vol. 22 No. 9 (September 2001) "Star Dust"
>
> http://www.eecs.umichdot edu/mathscience/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/jpl/micromet.html
>
> http://freeweb.pdqdot net/headstrong/met.htm
>
> More to come soon I hope!
>
> Jim
> The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
> If you are interested in complete links on the 2001 LEONIDS, see:
> http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html
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The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
If you are interested in complete links on the 2001 LEONIDS, see:
http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html
To stop getting email from the 'meteorobs' list, use the Web form at:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html
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