collect space rock during rainfall

Each and every day, millions of space rocks, ranging in size from a grain of sand to the size of a small marble, fall on the earth.

These micrometeorites are made mostly of iron and nickel and were most likely formed in the asteroid belt, beyond the orbit of Mars, about 4.5 billion years ago.

If you would like to find some, here’s how:

First, you will need a bucket and a magnet. Take the magnet and put it in the bucket and put the bucket under the downspout from your gutters. When the rain begins, it will wash any micrometeorites into the gutter, down the downspout, and into the bucket to be collected by the magnet.

After it rains, take a look at the magnet and you will see tiny micrometeorites that were formed when our solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Good project for a rainy day!

original source

I found out about that as a kid... I'm not sure where from. Might have been Beakman.

It was really cool, got me started on my science kick.

Thats pretty cool!

Will have to give it a go next time it rains!

Yeah, same here...First ive heard of it....

Originally posted by whitemotel
Yeah, same here...First ive heard of it....

I was a really nerdy kid. ^^;

Is this stuff worth as much as PROPER meteorites?

The reason I ask is I live in Manchester UK so I could probably collect loads of this over a year.. Heat it up and press into rough shape...

(Manchester UK = Rain)

Hm, I wonder what the silica chemical composition of Volcanic Ash would be. I'd imagine it would contain concentrated particles of Iodine somewhere within one of the elements Volcanoes often erupt?
Perhaps it could be this the Scientists are mistaking for Meteoric debris, afterall not everyone has access to carbon dating in their back-yard.

reply to post by ROBL240


Uh... why would they use carbon dating on rocks?
It doesn't work on rocks.
It also isn't used to tell if rocks are or are not meteorites.

It's the iron that the magnets collet that's meteoric,it's been a while since i looked at how it's gauged to be meteoric, I'll have to look it up after i get home today.

Obviously the Meteoric deposits are Ionised in nature, hence why the particles are attracted to the magnets in the experiment. but the same can also be said for the same chemposition in Volcanic Ash that contains Silica, when broken down into seperate compounds as often happens in eruptions (Ash is a mixture of elements, Basalt, Sulphur, Fluoride, Iron), then it could also be the same Ionised particles being mistaken for Meteoric Debris.

You don't carbon-Date the rock as there is none obviously, you carbon-date the Iron.

reply to post by ROBL240


You don't carbon date the iron either.
Carbon dating is used for organic remains.

Carbon Dating

And... why would you even want to date the iron?

Urgh...I give up, Because a Iron fragment from space would be older than one sourced from Earth...

And Carbon Dating can be used on just about anything with a radiological signature, wikipedia really isn't the best source to be quoting from.

Originally posted by ROBL240
Urgh...I give up, Because a Iron fragment from space would be older than one sourced from Earth...

And Carbon Dating can be used on just about anything with a radiological signature, wikipedia really isn't the best source to be quoting from.

Back up. Carbon Dating is useless for anything older than 50,000 years (and 50k years is pushing it). I believe you are confusing carbon dating with radiometric dating. Carbon dating is a type of radiometric dating only useful when dating organics under 50000 years old.

You don't even have to wait for a rainy day - I saw a guy on a web video doing this on his shed roof with a hose pipe

Aahaha sweet!

Thanks for this!

Star and Flag

Great find, this is news to me and i will definitely give it a go.

Thankyou

Anyone trying this-put your magnet in a plastic bag first,or you will struggle to pull the tiny metal particles of your magnet.