Micrometeorite collections: a review and their current status

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Main Authors: van Ginneken, Matthias, Wozniakiewicz, Penelope J., Brownlee, Donald E., Debaille, Vinciane, Della Corte, Vincenzo, Delauche, Lucie, Duprat, Jean, Engrand, Cecile, Folco, Luigi, Fries, Marc, Gattacceca, Jérôme, Genge, Matthew J., Goderis, Steven, Gounelle, Matthieu, Harvey, Ralph P., Jonker, Guido, Krämer Ruggiu, Lisa, Larsen, Jon, Lever, James H., Noguchi, Takaaki, Peterson, Scott, Rochette, Pierre, Rojas, Julien, Rotundi, Alessandra, Rudraswami, N. G., Suttle, Martin D., Taylor, Susan, Van Maldeghem, Flore, Zolensky, Michael
• Other Authors: Region Ile de France, Italian Ministry for Universities and Research, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor, Science and Technology Facilities Council
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2024
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2023.0195; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2023.0195; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2023.0195

Micrometeorites are estimated to represent the main part of the present flux of extraterrestrial matter found on the Earth’s surface and provide valuable samples to probe the interplanetary medium. Here, we describe large and representative collections of micrometeorites currently available to the scientific community. These include Antarctic collections from surface ice and snow, as well as glacial sediments from the eroded top of nunataks—summits outcropping from the icesheet—and moraines. Collections extracted from deep-sea sediments (DSS) produced a large number of micrometeorites, in particular, iron-rich cosmic spherules that are rarer in other collections. Collections from the old and stable surface of the Atacama Desert show that finding large numbers of micrometeorites is not restricted to polar regions or DSS. The advent of rooftop collections marks an important step into involving citizen science in the study of micrometeorites, as well as providing potential sampling locations over all latitudes to explore the modern flux. We explore their strengths of the collections to address specific scientific questions and their potential weaknesses. The future of micrometeorite research will involve the finding of large fossil micrometeorite collections and benefit from recent advances in sampling cosmic dust directly from the air. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Dust in the Solar System and beyond’.