Collecting MOONDUST! One of my favorite science/community-building activities.........

Collecting moondust!!

A couple of years ago, when listening to Morning Edition on NPR, my attention was caught when an interview focused on the previous night’s meteor shower over Colorado.

Apparently, after such a shower, one can find magnetic meteorite dust by sweeping the ground with a magnet. That gave me an idea…………..

A meteor shower, incidentally, is the result of an interaction between Earth and streams of debris from a comet. Each time a comet swings by the sun in its orbit, some of its ice vaporizes and a certain amount of meteoroids (iron based, so magnetic) are shed. The meteoroids  spread out along the entire orbit of the comet to form a meteoroid stream also known as a dust trail, and eventually fall to the earth below, waiting to be collected by young scientists.

So, soil collected on a walk might contain some iron particles which I call ‘moondust’ and can be discovered by using a magnet.

  

What you need:  

• A soil sample, ideally from the banks of a nearby stream
• A magnet
• A small container to hold the magnet
• A tin
• A magnifying glass

What you do:

Spread out the soil on a small tray. Then, slowly move the magnet in the container over the soil. If there’s any meteoroids in the earth, they will stick to the bottom of the container.

Hold the container over the empty tin and remove the magnet.

The moon dust will fall inside the bottom of the tin.

******* Don’t forget to label the tin and date it - and, hey, you have a Pocket Museum filled with MOONDUST!!