Visual Meteor Shower List

The tiniest members of our solar system are very small metallic or rocky particles. They are only a few microns in diameter (a micron is .00001 cm). It is estimated that up to 100 tons of micrometeorites enter the earth's atmosphere every day. For the most part, they are too small to burn up in Earth's atmosphere as meteors do.

More micrometeorites are found in the atmosphere after a meteor shower. Their light weight sometimes keeps them suspended in the air until they are washed out by rain or snow.

They can be collected from the rain or snow because they usually have some traces of iron in them, causing them to be attracted to a magnet. Try to collect rain water before and after a major meteor shower. That way you will be able to measure the increase caused by the shower!

Materials Needed:

Bucket or pan to collect rain water, lined with a plastic bag

2 or 3 cups of distilled water

Magnet inside a plastic bag

Magnetized needle

Magnifying glass

Microscope with about 100X magnification

Microscope slides

LOTS of patience !!!

What to do:

 Have a bucket or pan ready to put out in an open area when it rains. (Wider is Better!) Your meteor collecting pan needs to be lined with a VERY CLEAN (new) heavy plastic bag. This is because you don't want to accidentally start out with any metallic remnants that were here on Earth all along! Place the pan in an open area, where the rain will fall in without first bouncing off anything like buildings or trees.

 Try to plan to catch one rain water sample before the meteor shower and another the first time it rains after the meteor shower.

Next make your meteorite collector. This is a magnet (the strongest one you can find is best), inside a plastic bag. Slowly sweep the bottom of the pan with the collector. Because the metallic meteorites have iron in them, they will be attracted to the magnet. You have it in the bag so that - (1) you won't mistake pieces of metal already on the magnet for your little micrometeorites and (2) you don't want to loose them when they want to stay stuck to the magnet.

They will be REALLY - REALLY SMALL so don't get discouraged if it looks like there is nothing there!

Now put the magnet (still in the bag) gently into a pot (lined with heavy aluminum foil) of distilled water. (Don't use more distilled water than you need. You will have to boil it off later.) Remove the magnet without exposing it to the water. The particles will fall off when you swirl the bag in the water.

 Re-sweep the rain water several times in this way, adding the sweepings to the same pan of distilled water. Take your time when you do this part, holding the bag snug against the magnet so you don't knock pieces off that you have swept up.

 Now you need to remove the water. This may be done by boiling it in the aluminum-lined pan.

 When the remaining particles are dry remove them with a magnetized needle. (A needle may be magnetized by rubbing it on a magnet several times in the same direction.) Put them on a slide and look at them under a microscope. A 100X microscope is necessary to examine some particles, but a magnifying glass is enough for the larger ones.

 The particles collected before the shower are your control group. Although some of these may be meteorites it is likely that most are from industrial waste. By comparing them with the group taken after the shower you can more easily sort out the ones that look different than the first batch. Generally, though, they may have burned or melted-looking parts. They are often clumpy-looking. There also may be crystalline structures.

Probable candidates can be mounted on on a slide with clear glue for future use.