# Collect your own micrometeorites **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 10, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356 "2005-02-10T05:07:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/1 "2005-02-10T05:07:41Z")
When I was a kid, my Catholic grade school-cum-church parking lot was huge, plus it was one uninterrupted expanse of asphalt that extended the approximate area of a football field. Unlike the landscaping in parking lots today, where islands are inserted throughout, this was all open space. With a curb lining it along the southern border. The north wind off Lake Erie kept blowing dust across the whole length of the parking lot so that it collected up against the curb. Lightweight dust was blown farther away, but the heavy dust made of denser particles stayed earthbound and that was mostly what we found there. At recess, kids brought magnets and picked up this dust with magnetism. They could be picked up magnetically, because they’re in large part made of iron, and that means they’re micrometeorites from outer space! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/2 "2005-02-10T14:12:22Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > When I was a kid, my Catholic grade school-cum . . . Helluva way to start a sentence. I’ve not spent any time up there but aren’t the northern regions of Michigan and Minnesota the sources of large scale iron/taconite production? I was thinking that the Edmund Fitzgerald was carring just such a cargo. Or did I just get whooshed? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/3 "2005-02-11T01:16:52Z")
I knew to expect the “cum” joke, I guess I just didn’t actually believe it would appear in the first response. Matter of fact, this is nowhere the Mesabi Range up near Lake Superior. I was talking about suburban Cleveland, Ohio. This is iron from _outer space_. **lieu** , back in the 18th century there were learned savants like yourself, who “knew” meterorites could not possibly fall from space. If you had proposed this theory to the great astronomer Laplace, he would go “_Zut alors, mais_ zis is a, 'ow you say, whoosh?” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Roboto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr.Roboto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Roboto)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/4 "2005-02-11T01:50:32Z")
We called them “Steel Filings” when I was a munschin. We extrapilated them out of the sand box in kintergarden. Kinda hard to get off the magnet though. we use to have these cheesey small horseshoe magnets that worked O.K. then Bernie Swartz brought this giant behemoth magnet that picked up bushels at a time. Fun Stuff! Now, real meteorites are worth more per gram than Gold! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/5 "2005-02-11T01:52:17Z")
Or, it’s merely iron filings from a machine shop or factory. :dubious: You need to check out your “meteorites” under a microscope. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/6 "2005-02-11T13:32:41Z")
I had iron filings in my junior science kit for experimenting with magnetic fields. I knew what they looked like. The micrometerorites on the playground (which was located in a residential area at least ten miles from the nearest industrial zone) were of different appearance from iron filings. Much smaller and rounded like dust grains. Of course we looked at them under a microscope, how could we fail to investigate the phenomenon? Like I said, the wind did not blow this heavy dust very far, which was why it accumulated on the surface while the lighter dust blew away. It must have fallen from space. Science knows that micrometeorites do reach earth’s surface. Matter blown out of the guts of dying stars keeps sprinkling the earth. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/7 "2005-02-11T14:00:49Z")
> [@Mr. Roboto](#): > > … Kinda hard to get off the magnet though… Wrap the magnet in clingfilm. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/8 "2005-02-11T14:51:39Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Science knows that micrometeorites do reach earth’s surface. Matter blown out of the guts of dying stars keeps sprinkling the earth. Ah. We are, daily, sprinkled with Cosmic Postmortum Doody. That you for that lovely mental image… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/9 "2005-02-11T15:07:01Z")
I’ll try this and examine the results under a microscope; I do rather suspect, though, that the vast majority of metal particles found in a large car park may not be of _quite_ as immediate extraterrestrial origin as you might hope, given that… you know… _cars_ are made of metal, mostly. Could it not be the case that these particles were abraded to a rounded profile by being blown about the place? Were there any structures nearby that might have been welded together _in situ_? ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/10 "2005-02-11T18:38:48Z")
Things That Fall From The Sky 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/11 "2005-02-11T19:07:22Z")
Ladies, take heed: the new wide-brim tinfoil hat catches those magnetic outerspace meteorites encoded with messages from our alien friends while blocking mind-control government rays! It’s the new fashion for spring! ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/12 "2005-02-12T06:46:13Z")
Feh. Silly Ohioans. You get grains of magnetic sand. Here in Minnesota, we get [magnetic rocks.](http://dohiyimir.typepad.com/photos/minnesota/magneticrocke.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/13 "2005-02-12T18:32:09Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Feh. Silly Ohioans. You get grains of magnetic sand. Here in Minnesota, we get [magnetic rocks.](http://dohiyimir.typepad.com/photos/minnesota/magneticrocke.html) More data, please? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collect-your-own-micrometeorites/289356/14 "2005-02-13T05:28:13Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > More data, please? 😕 It’s a giant magnetic rock. When you stand near it with a compass, the rock is North. No matter which side of it you stand on. It’s kinda a bummer really, it used to be in the deep dark woods, but that area suffered a storm that blew all the trees down. It had more of a mistique. A Large chunk of Northern Minnesota is known as the “Iron Range”. So magnetic and iron rocks are around. I’ve seen veins of Iron running through cliffs. The rivers in the area can get coloration from rust.