Iconic cathedral hit with extraterrestrial dust

By Chris Britcher via SWNS

One of the UK's most iconic cathedrals has been hit by a series of meteorites - or more accurately micrometeorites.

Scientists climbed to the rooftop of the 1,000-year-old Canterbury Cathedral to search for the tiny particles, normally only found in places like Antarctica.

But over its long history, the space dust has fallen on the roof and a team from the University of Kent was able to recover the micrometeorites.

These particles of extraterrestrial dust from comets and meteorites could be key to discovering the origin of life on Earth.

They provide scientists with a far more easily obtainable subject matter to study instead of waiting for huge chunks of meteorites to fall from the sky.

Planetary scientists from the University of Kent secured permission from the iconic Canterbury Cathedral - one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in the United Kingdom - to collect space dust from its roof.

One of the best places to search for micrometeorites is on the rooftops of tall buildings, where the cosmic dust particles settle with the domestic dust we create on Earth.

The dust derives from meteorites which often revolve around the Sun between planets Mars and Jupiter.

Many of them are thought to have been formed up to 4.6 billion years ago.

However, once these meteorites collide, smaller chunks can break off and their journey to our planet, taking tens of thousands of years, begins.

Dr. Penny Wozniakiewicz, a senior lecturer in Space Science at the University of Kent, explained that between 20 and 40 thousand tonnes of extraterrestrial dust is estimated to fall across the surface of the Earth every year.

"Up until recently, it was generally regarded that trying to search for micrometeorites anywhere other than places like the Antarctic – where we have a really low background level of terrestrial dust – would be very difficult," Dr. Wozniakiewicz said.

"They are arriving on Earth in large numbers, so we estimate that around 20 to 40 thousand tonnes of extraterrestrial dust is arriving every year.

"But that's spread over the whole surface of the planet.

"There have been estimates that it amounts to about one to six particles per meter square per year arriving if you spread it equally.

"If you're lucky, one might hit you - but not hard. By the time they reach the surface, they are floating down.

"But in places other than the Antarctic you've obviously got large amounts of terrestrial dust that we're making, and this can get very difficult to search through for cosmic dust."

Dr. Matthias van Ginneken, a research associate at the University added: "Micrometeorites are the particles that survive atmospheric entry.

"Most of it gets burnt up when reaching the atmosphere because of collisions with air molecules; they become what we call meteoric smoke.

"But micrometeorites are between a few tens of microns in size up to, let's say, two millimeters.

"So the very big ones you can see with your naked eye like you can see a black dot on your finger."

The researchers take their samples back to their laboratory and, initially, work at sifting the cosmic dust from other, far less glamorous matter found on the roof.

Dr van Ginneken added: "You take it back to the laboratory and wash the sample because roofs are pretty dirty. There's a lot of bird poo, for example.

"Then, once it's clean, you can use a microscope and then spend hours and hours just looking for spheres.

"It's a very long process."

Dr. Wozniakiewicz revealed that using magnets to entice the micrometeorites can be helpful, saying: "A really cool characteristic of a lot of extraterrestrial dust is that they contain magnetic material within them."

"So you can increase your chances of finding a micrometeorite by using a magnet to actually separate out the magnetic portion and then search through that.

"Then, if you look for the particles that have actually come through the atmosphere and melted, they'll form very distinctive spheres, very beautiful spheres.

"In short, you can indeed find cosmic particles amongst the dust on rooftops."

Dr. van Ginneken explained the science at work, saying: "To make it very simple, let's say that we know amino acids are the building blocks of life.

"They’re rather simple organic molecules; carbon-based molecules that are necessary for life to appear.

"These molecules were found on meteorites, and micrometeorites as well.

"So there is a possibility that the building blocks of life didn't appear on Earth but appeared in space, then were delivered to early Earth."

"And then the presence of water and energy allow these molecules to get more and more complex – eventually leading to the operation of life."

In studying the particles the researchers hope to identify the asteroid family from which they once formed a part, giving an idea of the inventory of matter in the solar system.

The sought-after particles form beautifully spherical shapes after crashing through the atmosphere on their way to Earth.

Despite the potential answers studying micrometeorites could offer, only a handful of scientists in the UK are actively researching them.

Using 3D printers, researchers have also been able to enlarge the particles which they take into schools to demonstrate their findings.

The pair have also secured permission from several other cathedrals across the nation to carry out similar rooftop investigations.

Dr. Wozniakiewicz said: "The idea is we hope to build this into a citizen science project.

"Several cathedrals around the UK, through Canterbury Cathedral, have said they are interested in the project so we're hoping to go and sample from each of those rooftops as well so that we can have a series of them.

"Ideally, we want to expand on it so it became nationwide, or even worldwide.

"Then we can start to compare the micrometeorites we find and look for different types, but also compare them in different locations to see if there are interesting patterns based on latitude for instance, or whether that tells you anything more."

Canterbury Cathedral was originally founded in the year 597 but was later rebuilt between 1070 and 1077, enlarged at the close of the 12th Century and again rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174.

The Cathedral became a popular pilgrimage site due to its shrine of Thomas Becket - the archbishop who was murdered there in 1170.