Cosmic Dust Found on Cathedral Roofs Comes From Micrometeorites, May Hold Key in Discovering Earth's Origin

Scientists are scouring the roofs of cathedrals across the UK in search of the remains of cosmic dust which date back billions of years.

Space Dust on Pilgrimage

Headed by planetary scientist Dr. Penny Wozniakiewicz, a group of experts from the University of Kent embark on a project to visit 13 cathedrals which are believed to be ideal locations to gather micrometeorites. They have begun their search on top of Canterbury Cathedral with Rochester Cathedral as their target next month.

They are searching for the particles that are usually found only in places, like Antarctica, since ordinary terrestrial dusts make them hard to discover. Cathedral roofs are ideal locations to search for extraterrestrial dust due to their size and inaccessibility.

According to Wozniakiewicz, micrometeorites arrive on Earth in huge numbers, so they estimate that about 20,000 to 40,000 tons of cosmic dust arrive every year. However, it spreads over the whole surface of the Earth; and if they are distributed equally across our planet, it amounts to one to six particles per meter per year. In places other than the Antarctica, large amounts of terrestrial dust can hinder the search for space dust.

The team has already collected samples from the 1,000-year-old Canterbury Cathedral which include particles from other solar systems and believed to be 7 billion years old. These grains could have entered our own star system after it was born 4.6 billion years ago.

The collected samples are taken to the laboratory where the extraterrestrial dust is isolated from other materials found on the roof. The samples are washed and then observed under the microscope to look for spheres. As described by University of Kent research associate Dr. Mattias van Ginneken, this is a very long process which can take several hours.

Magnets are often used by the researchers to collect the micrometeorites since extraterrestrial dust contain magnetic material within them. After collecting particles that actually come through the atmosphere, they can be melted to produce very distinctive spheres. They hope that these space dust which came from comets and meteorites may provide new insights about the formation of life on Earth.

In biology, amino acids are described as the building blocks of life. Surprisingly, these carbon-based molecules are also found on meteorites and micrometeorites. From this discovery, the experts will attempt to find out if the building blocks of life actually appeared outside our planet and were only delivered to Earth during its formation.

What Are Micrometeorites?

Every day, the Earth's atmosphere is hit by millions of meteoroids and micrometeoroids. Most of them never reach the surface of the Earth since they get burnt up upon reaching the atmosphere due to their collisions with air molecules, creating the meteoric smoke.

There are also particles, called micrometeorites, that survive atmospheric entry and reach the Earth's surface. Their size allows them to radiate away the heat generated by their friction with molecules of air.

The extremely small meteorites are smaller than a grain of sand and measure from tens of microns to two millimeters. Despite their extremely small size, the micrometeorites travel at high velocities and can pose threat to spacecraft and artificial satellites.