According to a new calculation carried out by researchers at the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the University of Paris-Saclay, and published in the journal Earth & Planetary Science Letters , each year 5,200 tons of micrometeorites (interplanetary dust from comets and asteroids that give rise to shooting stars) reach the ground of the Earth.
We are talking about particles of a few tenths to hundredths of a millimeter that have passed through the atmosphere and have reached the surface of the Earth.
Six expeditions in search of micrometeorites
To collect and analyze these micrometeorites, six expeditions led by CNRS researcher Jean Duprat have taken place over the last twenty years near the Franco-Italian station of Concordia (Dome C), which is located 1,100 kilometers off the coast of the Adelia land in the heart of Antarctica .
This is the main source of extraterrestrial matter on our planet, far ahead of larger objects like meteorites, whose flux is less than ten tons per year.
Most of the micrometeorites probably come from comets (80%) and the rest from asteroids.