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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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