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--------------------- 1679 - Space Dust , what does it tell us?
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- Space is full of dust. Even outer space is full of dust. This dust mostly comes from comets and asteroids that are circling the Sun along with us. Earth passes through this space dust every day. Amazingly, between 50 to 100 tons of space dust falls on us each day.
-
-. In the night sky you can see these as “shooting stars“. These are bright streaks of light shooting across the sky at 28,000 miles per hour. The glowing hot dust particles are the size of a grain of sand, or smaller.
-
-. Thousands of tons of these extraterrestrial particles fall to the surface as cosmic dust very year. Typically they measure less than 100 microns, about the width of a human hair.
-
-. Astronomers are trying to collect and study this cosmic dust to learn more of the evolution of our solar system. They have used 12 mile high-flying aircraft with sticky surface Lexon plates, coated with silicone, beneath the wings. They study these dust particles under scanning electron microscopes analyzing and cataloging each piece of dust.
-
-. Astronomers have learned that a large portion of this cosmic dust is not the same as meteorites that we find on the surface of Earth. Meteorites mostly originated from asteroids. Some of the particles are the least altered material in the solar system. Most likely coming from comets. Some are the dusts originating from the interstellar medium. Some of the dust grains contain organic material that may have seeded early Earth with the raw materials necessary for life.
-
-. Two spacecraft have been launched to attempt to collect cosmic dust before it enters Earth's atmosphere:
-
----------------- Stardust
----------------- Hayabusa
-.
-. Stardust was launched February, 1999, arriving at the 81P/WILD comet in January, 2004. The spacecraft was equipped with 124 silicone aerogel blocks that collected dust from the comet’s tail 149 miles from its surface. The samples were returned to Earth January, 2006, parachuting into the Utah desert.
-
-. The tracks in the aerogel stopped the dust particles that hit the surface of the gel at 13,000 miles per hour. Studies of each particle revealed its composition. One surprise was that some of the minerals had to be formed at high temperatures found in the inner solar system. Comets are formed in the far outer solar system. This dichotomy suggested that the early solar system was a turbulent environment that result in mixing of both of these regions.
-
- Suggestions were made that asteroids are the cores of comets. Comets that ended up too close to the Sun. All their lighter elements have evaporated away from heat and solar winds. What is left is a rocky surface with a heavy mineral core.
-
-. The Hayabusa mission launched in 2003 to the near-earth asteroid “Itokawa“,. It arrived September, 2005. The mission was to fire a projectile into the surface and to collect the debris. The spacecraft returned June ,2010 landing in the Australian desert.
-
-. We learned that meteorites most commonly found on Earth contain chondrite minerals which were similar to those found on this asteroid. The iron content told astronomers that Itokawa was once much larger and likely broke apart as result of impacts.
-
-. Studying cosmic dust as a way to learn more about the origin of our solar system and possibly how life developed on our planet. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
--- Some reviews are at: -------------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
---- email request for copies to: ------- jamesdetrick@comcast.net ---------
---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com ---
---- www.twitter.com , --- 707-536-3272 ---- Friday, May 2, 2014 ---
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Space is full of dust. Even outer space is full of dust. This dust mostly comes from comets and asteroids that are circling the Sun along with us. Earth passes through this space dust every day. Amazingly, between 50 to 100 tons of space dust falls on us each day.
-
-. In the night sky you can see these as “shooting stars“. These are bright streaks of light shooting across the sky at 28,000 miles per hour. The glowing hot dust particles are the size of a grain of sand, or smaller.
-
-. Thousands of tons of these extraterrestrial particles fall to the surface as cosmic dust very year. Typically they measure less than 100 microns, about the width of a human hair.
-
-. Astronomers are trying to collect and study this cosmic dust to learn more of the evolution of our solar system. They have used 12 mile high-flying aircraft with sticky surface Lexon plates, coated with silicone, beneath the wings. They study these dust particles under scanning electron microscopes analyzing and cataloging each piece of dust.
-
-. Astronomers have learned that a large portion of this cosmic dust is not the same as meteorites that we find on the surface of Earth. Meteorites mostly originated from asteroids. Some of the particles are the least altered material in the solar system. Most likely coming from comets. Some are the dusts originating from the interstellar medium. Some of the dust grains contain organic material that may have seeded early Earth with the raw materials necessary for life.
-
-. Two spacecraft have been launched to attempt to collect cosmic dust before it enters Earth's atmosphere:
-
----------------- Stardust
----------------- Hayabusa
-.
-. Stardust was launched February, 1999, arriving at the 81P/WILD comet in January, 2004. The spacecraft was equipped with 124 silicone aerogel blocks that collected dust from the comet’s tail 149 miles from its surface. The samples were returned to Earth January, 2006, parachuting into the Utah desert.
-
-. The tracks in the aerogel stopped the dust particles that hit the surface of the gel at 13,000 miles per hour. Studies of each particle revealed its composition. One surprise was that some of the minerals had to be formed at high temperatures found in the inner solar system. Comets are formed in the far outer solar system. This dichotomy suggested that the early solar system was a turbulent environment that result in mixing of both of these regions.
-
- Suggestions were made that asteroids are the cores of comets. Comets that ended up too close to the Sun. All their lighter elements have evaporated away from heat and solar winds. What is left is a rocky surface with a heavy mineral core.
-
-. The Hayabusa mission launched in 2003 to the near-earth asteroid “Itokawa“,. It arrived September, 2005. The mission was to fire a projectile into the surface and to collect the debris. The spacecraft returned June ,2010 landing in the Australian desert.
-
-. We learned that meteorites most commonly found on Earth contain chondrite minerals which were similar to those found on this asteroid. The iron content told astronomers that Itokawa was once much larger and likely broke apart as result of impacts.
-
-. Studying cosmic dust as a way to learn more about the origin of our solar system and possibly how life developed on our planet. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
--- Some reviews are at: -------------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
---- email request for copies to: ------- jamesdetrick@comcast.net ---------
---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com ---
---- www.twitter.com , --- 707-536-3272 ---- Friday, May 2, 2014 ---
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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