Micrometeorites are extremely small and likely very old pieces of extraterrestrial dust that may have originated from asteroids and comets or may be remnants for the initial solar system formation. This dust survived traveling through Earth’s atmosphere, landing everywhere on the surface. Project Starfall collects microscale debris from rooftops, downspouts and storm drains in multiple locations along the southern Oregon coast. We conduct initial analysis to find probable micrometeorite candidates within our collected samples to update local data on frequency and variety of micrometeorites in our region. We also investigate local discovery positions to explore if there is a geographic variation in micrometeorite frequency.
As a second component to our micrometeorite analysis, we are developing an experimental approach to investigate the impact of micrometeorite mineral contributions to Earth soils and their impact on the growth of Wisconsin fast plants. We vary the mineral composition of the soil corresponding to an estimated number of years of micrometeorite pile up and record details on the growth and resilience of plants in each soil.