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Re: (meteorobs) Meteoric Dust

Bob:
    I suggest we pass this message on to Marco Langbroek of the DMS.  He has
done some work in this area.  Most dust collected off a roof will probably
turn out to be some sort of industrial pollution,  Back issues of MAPS will
show you what meteoritic dust particles look like.  I will c.c. Marco a copy
of this message and hopefully he will find the time to answer it.
Happy New Year:

Ed Majden

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Lunsford" <lunro.imo.usa@coxdot net>
To: "Meteor List" <meteorobs@atmob.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 3:59 PM
Subject: (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
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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