Do thousands of tons of dust come to Earth every year from space?

New York, September 6, 2021, Wednesday

Increasing air pollution on Earth causes millions of tons of waste to be released into the atmosphere, but it would be surprising to know that 300 tons of dust comes to Earth from space. Earth comets face thousands of tons of dust from other planets, according to research by a team of international scientists. Dust from the unknown world gives the impression of being a star when it passes through our atmosphere. Some of these fall to Earth in the form of microscopic meteorites. With the help of the French Polar Institute, CNRS, Paris Sackle University and the National Museum of Natural History have been researching this for years.

Due to the continuous movement in space, microscopic meteorites called micro meteorites continue to land on Earth. Dust particles from asteroids range in size from tens of millimeters to hundreds. Which passes through the atmosphere and reaches the surface of the earth. Over the past two decades, six expeditions have been conducted at the Franco Italian Concordia Station (Dom C), led by CNRS researcher Jean Dupret, to collect and analyze these micrometrics. Which is 1100 km off the coast of Adele Land in the center of Antarctica. Scientists have chosen this place because of the small amount of snow and soil dust.

The mission has collected enough dust particles from space between 20 and 300 micrometers in size. The space dust that comes to this place every year is similar to the extraterrestrial particles. About 90 percent of the dust particles come from comets and 40 percent from asteroids. Scientists believe that space dust could help explain how water and carbon atoms were delivered to Earth in the early days.