Re: Can I collect meteorite dust on a plastic sheet?

Kathy and class,

  Many tons of dust from space enter the Earth's atmosphere every day.  
Even though tons sounds like a lot of dust, this amount is very small 
compared to the dust mixed in our atmosphere that comes directly from the 
Earth itself.  You can put out a sheet of plastic and collect dust and a 
small amount of this dust will be from space but most of it will be 
simple, ordinary, Earth dust.

  The use of simple methods like a magnet is not likely to separate the 
Earth's dust from the space dust because both Earth and space contain the 
same (silicate and iron) materials.

  However, the idea of using plastic to collect space dust is a good 
idea.  There are plans for a mission where the spacecraft will expose a 
large roll of plastic and collect space dust as it travels through space.  
It will then roll up the plastic and return it to Earth for scientists to 
examine this space dust that has not been mixed into the Earth's 
atmosphere.

John Haberman, Space Scientist
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center