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(meteorobs) Meteoric Dust



I received the following question which I cannot answer properly. If 
anyone wishes to take a stab at it I will gladly forward it to Mr. Andrews.

Bob Lunsford
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I am an amateur astronomer/ telescope maker from New Jersey and a member 
of the New Jersey Astronomical Association.

When I was a teenager in the 1960s our local newspaper ran an article 
called "August Skies . . .". This was on July 30, 1968 and was written 
by David L. Moore of the National Geographic Cartographic Division.  An 
excerpt of particular interest stated "Anyone can collect a sample of 
this star dust at any time by placing a bucket under a downspout leading 
from the roof of a house. After a rain, one simply pours the water out 
of the bucket, carefully preserving the silt that has washed off the 
roof. Almost all the meteor dust in the bucket will contain iron; other 
particles will not. Thus any grains picked up by a magnet can be safely 
assumed to be meteor dust. Examined under a microscope, these small bits 
prove to be tiny replicas of large meteorites."

Well, at the time I carefully dusted and washed out my parents gutters 
and collected the particles. I then separated the magnetic grains from 
the rest and have kept this bit of black powder in a tiny case labelled 
"meteoric dust". Under a microscope they appear to be regular and 
irregular spherules.

Until recently I never gave it a second thought. I believe that 
industrial soot may resemble black spherules and may be magnetic. 
However, in all my years of reading astronomy articles I have never 
heard of anyone suggesting collecting meteor dust in such a way. Is this 
a valid way of collecting such particles? If so, how would one 
distinguish between terrestial and extraterrestrial particles?

Thank you,
John Andrews
Milford, NJ

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