The Solar System is dusty . Some of this rubble could comefrom satellite , some is the solvent of asteroid and comets . As Earth goes about its compass , it regularly sweeps it . This stuff impart rise to meteor cascade , and a small fraction of these can pass on the ground as micrometeorites .
An external program has been working for 20 geezerhood to figure how much material is rain down down on our heads every year – they estimate about 5.2 million kg ( 11.5 million pounds ) of micrometeorites . That ’s equivalent to a two - and - a - half space shuttle ’s worth of extraterrestrial stuff and nonsense landing on Earth every year . expectant meteorites make up about 10,000 kilograms ( 22,000 pound ) of distance poppycock stupefy to Earth .
The findings are reported inEarth & Planetary Science Letters . The micrometeorites are really tiny – the ones report in this study were mostly between 30 and 200 micrometer caliper . hand their size , it is unsurprising that it is difficult to wreak out just how much of them settle to the earth every year . The team , conduce by scientist at the CNRS , the Université Paris - Saclay , and the National Museum of Natural History , go to a place where they could receive one of the best plaza on Earth to do so : Antarctica
The Franco - Italian Concordia place is located in a region called Dome C , the right way in the heart and soul of the southernmost continent . The arena has a low collection of new snow and very little terrestrial junk , so space junk becomes easier to find and collect . The squad performed six expeditions there , allowing them to estimate the yearly magnetic flux of micrometeorites .
The findings hint that 80 pct of the micrometeorite get along from comet , mostly Jupiter - Family comet . The remaining 20 percentage total or else from asteroid . The findings above 100 microns match the theoretic anticipation for the amount of extraterrestrial dust we should be seeing . But below 100 microns , we see a lot fewer micrometeor than predicted from the amount of debris there should be out there in the solar system at the distance that the Earth is from the Sun ( 1 Astronomical Unit – AU )
“ This suggests several hypothesis : the existence of highly flimsy particles that would not be collected with the collection protocol in Dome C snow ; fragmentation removal of a substantial number of little particles before atmospheric debut ; or that the actual amount of small interplanetary particles at 1 AU may be smaller than expected , ” the author wrote inthe conclusion of the theme .
The uncertainties of this piece of work can hopefully be improved in the time to come with unlike approaches to try collections .
