astroGC

Micrometorites are falling constantly everywhere. Their origin is unclear, according to some studies, most of them could come from comet dust. They are the oldest materials of the solar system. They are beautiful. They are everywhere. On your doorstep, on your home roof, on your car roof. Any step you take outdoor, you step on many of them. But you cannot see them. They are too small. A very good question is : How many are they? This apparently easy question is actually quite hard to answer. It depends on what you call a micrometeorite and what is your source of information. Next we are going to make an attempt answering. The first definition of micrometeorites was actually only referring to unmelted particles. But in the last 20 years it happens scientist are calling micrometeorites to both melted and unmelted particles. Let us consider as "micrometeorite" any particle less than 1 mm in diameter coming from the space "as it" (not from a bigger body t

We have been lastly trying to find more micrometeorites. In the South of Gran Canaria, it is almost raining during the winter only. At this time there are some roads near Mogan where the asphalt has not drained the rains for months.  GC-605 road in South Gran Canaria Many micrometeorites fell on this roads during this time. And they are still there. Using an extremely powerful magnet it might be possible to find them. The magnet we have been using is a dangerous 1000 Kg powerful neodynium magnet. 1000Kg powerful magnet We enfold the magnet in a plastic bag in an attempt to make easier to unstick metal particles from the magnet in the future. Then we put the magnet under one of our minivan, separated about 8cm from the asphalt. The magnet in place We drove the GC-605 slowly and remove the magnet later. So far so good: it worked ! The harvest With some difficulties we managed to separate the metal particles from the magnet. The power of the magnet attracti

At  astroGC   we are dedicating time and money to find micrometeorites and learn more about this fascinating extraterrestrial   spherules . Micrometeorite hunting and their positive identification as extraterrestrial origin is challenging. Nevertheless micrometeorites are everywhere. Every step you take in an outdoor area, you step on several micrometeorites. This means it is theoretically possible to find micrometeorites next to the door of your home. This is precisely what we have done. On Saturday 6 April 2019. After a huge rain, we recollected dust on the sidewalk next to the garage where we are parking one of our vans. We noticed a neighbor drains rainwater from his roof directly to the public sidewalk. It is not raining very often here. Micrometeorites fell on his roof during months and were moved out to the sidewalk during the strong rain. After analyzing the dust, we finally discovered a strong micrometeorite candidate. In this case we are not 100% sure it is a