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Why study micrometeorites ? featuring spokesperson Steve Stevenowski Powerpoint or Web Browser
Differentiated Eggs : a meteor analogy activity (word document)
Classifying meteorites Powerpoint or Web Browser
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How to find micrometeorites (or at least, tiny magnetic rocks that might be meteorites)
a) Find a downspout that drains into one of those concrete or plastic splashboards. It's best if the splashboard isn't sloped very much, so the very fine dirt from the roof is still sitting in it.
b) Collect that fine dirt, and spread it out overnight on newspaper so it can dry out.
c) Use a magnet under the newspaper to sort all the magnetic particles from the rest of the "gutter crap"
d) Figure out a way to transfer the magnetic particles to a microscope slide, and have a look through them. It helps if you use a strong light from ABOVE, as these rocks don't transmit light very well.
e) Good qualities : pitting, rounding, appearance of heating. Can you tell for SURE that it's a meteorite ? Not with this equipment...but this is about observing, making judgements, and classifying.
Class Assignment on Meteorites &
Micrometeorites
1) Design an advertising poster (81/2
by 11) to sell either a bag of "gutter crap" or a cloud
chamber. Include exciting and mostly true promises of the wonders
to be revealed to the purchasers, and a fake celebrity endorsement.
2) Design and draw a micrometeorite collector you could build
using normal hardware store equipment.
a. Can you devise a way to automatically sort your potential micrometeorites
by size?
b. How could you use this to estimate the flux, that is, the number
of micrometeorites per square meter per week?
3) We talked about two concepts that are important to characterize
the operation of a detector, the minimum (threshold) and the maximum
size of the event the detector can resolve.
a. What do you estimate to be the threshold of the micrometeorite
experiment and why?
b. Estimate the flux of meteorites that are the size of a car.
Gallery of micrometeorites found by students
Andy
Caldwell's Antarctic journal
Juanita
Ryan's Antarctic journal
ANSMET
(Antarctic Search for Meteorites) web site