Every year, about 5200 tons of “dust” from space fall on the earth

Every year, about 5200 tons of “dust” from space fall on the earth – an estimate from a recent study.

These “cosmic dust” are debris from comets and asteroids. Some particles are completely vaporized in the process of entering the earth’s atmosphere, while others survive and fall to the earth and become “micrometeorites”. These fine meteorite particles are usually only tens to hundreds of microns large.

Micrometeorite particles collected in Antarctic snow (electron microscope image)

Recently, a study estimated the total amount of micro meteorites that fall on the earth every year. In the past 20 years, researchers collected snow in the ice Dome C of the Antarctic continent, melted and filtered it, and found the micro meteorite particles for observation. Here, the concentration of dust from the earth is very low, and the snowfall is small and stable, so it is very suitable for the study of micro meteorites.

(researchers collect snow on the Antarctic continent to look for micro meteorites)

The researchers speculate that these “cosmic dust” mainly come from Jupiter family comets and a small part from asteroids.

In fact, we should also have these small micro meteorites around us, but they are usually mixed with a large number of dust particles from the earth, which is difficult to be found.