5,000 tons of cosmic dust fall to Earth every year

It is quite difficult to detect cosmic dust on the blue planet, since it is quickly washed away by terrestrial precipitation

in the form of rain and snow, so Jean Duprat, a physicist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, and his colleagues made six expeditions to Antarctica to study precipitation.

The results of the current work were obtained thanks todata collected over 20 years of work. It studied micrometeorites—these are particles that previously belonged to comets and asteroids, ranging in size from 30 to 200 microns, and which fell to the surface of our planet from space.

For all the time of work, scientists have discovered 1280micrometeorites less than 0.7 mm in size and 808 fused dust clumps weighing less than 0.35 grams. Dense and solid particles originate from meteorites, which are debris of rock, while loose and porous particles are emitted from comets composed of ice and mud. The latter account for 80% of all cosmic dust falling to Earth, which is consistent with previous estimates.

As a result, scientists discovered that 5,200 tons of cosmic matter falls to the Earth every year. Of these, approximately 1600 tons of micrometeorites and 3600 tons of space spherules.

This work, the authors believe, allows for a better understanding of the role of interplanetary dust particles in supplying the young Earth with water and carbon molecules.

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