(mysterious electronic music) - So, we're out here on the roof of an apartment building
in Brooklyn, New York. And, we're looking for meteorites. Pieces of rock and metal
that've fallen from space and have landed here on Earth. We're obviously not going
to find anything big, but tiny micrometeorites,
they're actually everywhere. They look like the period
at the end of a sentence. But, under the right
microscope they're incredible. We enlisted the help of
the amateur scientist who proved that
micrometeorites could be found. And, using his technique, we're going to try to find some for ourselves. Somewhere here. I'm now realizing how
much work it's gonna be to find one of those. There's everything,
it's picking up so much, and they're all so tiny. You don't spend your day
tripping over big meteorites because they tend to burn
up in the atmosphere. You see a shooting star instead. But, really small ones,
or small bits of big ones do make it down to earth. We're talking one, or
two, or 300 micrometers. That maybe the fifth
of a millimeter across. Those are sometimes too light to burn up. Instead, they can melt
into little molten blobs and drift down to the surface. - The entire process of
melting, recrystallization, and deceleration is just
within a fraction of a second. So, it's practically instantly. - Here's our meteorite
guru, Mr. Jon Larsen. He's a jazz musician
turned amateur scientist. And, over the past few years, he's stunned the scientific community
by finding and identifying more than a thousand micrometeorites. The way Jon tells it, scientists knew that literally tons of specimen were landing on earth, all the time. But, no one thought that they
could be located and verified. - Everybody agreed upon that it was completely impossible to
find the micrometeorites in populated areas of the world. And, at the same time,
everybody agreed upon that the daily influx from space is nearly 100 metric tons of cosmic dust. So, I was like, hm, 100 metric tons, and it's impossible to find it? It doesn't add up. - [Cory] Some estimates put
that closer to 60 tons daily, but either way it's a lot. There wasn't a lot of data out there about what micrometeorites
actually looked like. So, Jon reversed the problem. He became a painstaking expert on all the other kids of
terrestrial matter out there. Sand, grit, and tiny bits of metal. - I had got that far that I had classified all the terrestrial dust particles from all over the world, actually. And, by sheer elimination then I started finding the micrometeorites. - We're on a roof because that's Jon's trick for finding them. He estimates that a one
square meter patch of ground gets hit with about one
micrometeorite per year. This roof is 3500 square meters. Which means 3500 micrometeorites hit it year, after year, after year. But, we'll be happy if we find just one. So, the method. Jon estimates that about
80% of micrometeorites are metallic, so we'll focus on those. A powerful neodymium magnet will help us separate the particles
that we're looking for from other dust and gunk. I'll just do these two
corners I guess, yeah. The magnet should find specimen that have iron or nickel in them. The best places to search are flat roofs with little to no foot traffic. High walls can also help
prevent micrometeorites from being carried away by the wind. All right. After about 30 minutes of collecting, we took our samples back
to the office for imaging. But first, there was a
little bit more prep to do. The next step is cleaning what we've got. The samples are dirty. So, we're going to clean
them off with warm water and a little dish soap. The micrometeorites should
sink so we can pour off the dirty water, rinse, and repeat until all the dirt is gone. After letting our roof mud dry, we need to toss out the
particles that are too big. This flour sieve has 300 micrometer mesh. So, by the end, we're going to be left with clean metallic candidates that are no larger than 300 micrometers. Before we image with our microscope, we studied up on what
they should look like. We have Jon's book, In Search of Stardust. Plus a ton of bonus
photos that he sent us. Jon says he wasn't prepared for the sheer variety that he found. - No two micrometeorites are alike. So, within the first year, I had found 500 different micrometeorites. And, they were all different. From glassy spheres until elongated, and with various types of
metal beads scattered around. So, it was a complete new mapping of a new type of rock. - There are also
imposters to look out for. Little bits of rounded rock and metal that originated here on earth. Jon has these cataloged too. They can be natural,
lightening strikes for instance can kick off tiny molten rock particles. But, a ton are manmade. Fireworks can spray the
earth with metallic detritus. Power tools can shave off
flecks of metal they cut. Even roofing tiles can shed bits of sand covered in iron rich glue. With the knowledge of what to look for, we started our hunt. (quick piano music) And, it wasn't easy. For three days we searched
particle by particle, looking for anything that might resemble a tiny pearl amongst other
jagged pieces of dust. Like this one, perfectly spherical, but perhaps a little too smooth. Or this one, glass-like,
with what appears to be a piece of metal protruding from it. Or, this one, a rough red sphere. Altogether we gathered
roughly 19 specimen. Cataloged them, and separated them from the rest of the samples. One, by one, by one. This was no easy feat. Just transferring the particles
over to their containers required the precision and
accuracy of a wet toothpick. I lost that really
pretty one that I showed, the one that I showed the whole office. It was moving over, now it's gone. I lost it in the transfer. The last step is for the
professionals to check our work. So, we sent our samples to
Norway to be imaged by Jon. Now, there's a reason Jon's images look so much better than ours. It's because he partnered with a geologist named Jan Braly Kihle. Jon approached Jan to ask for his help in imaging the micrometeorites. And, Jan took some convincing. - When he first mentioned
interplanetary dust, I just smiled (laughing). And, was close to taking the phone down because I thought this was madness. - But, he signed on. And, built a whole new system
for imaging Jon's samples. A micrometeorite is so
small that you can only keep a tiny cross section
in focus at a time. To get a full image,
you have to photograph multiple slices, each with
a slightly different focus, and then stack the photos
together to create a composite. Do that with a couple hundred images and you get something
that looks like this. So, we just got an email from Jon. He spent a few days going through our samples that we sent him. And, we're going to go
through the results. Okay. The tape and lid on each box
was removed before examination. Two of the boxes were found empty. All right, so a couple of our samples clearly didn't make it
all the way to Norway. That's a bummer. So, number one. No candidate found in the box. So, number two is an iron oxide spherule. Number three, most likely terrestrial. Number four, also an iron oxide spherule. Number five, iron oxide spherule. Number six, iron oxide spherule. So, a lot of what we
found and what Jon says he has found were iron oxide spherules. And, he says that they're
caused by a lot of mechanical, human activities like
grinding, angle cutting. And they're distributed
throughout the world through rain, wind, and
just normal foot traffic. Number eight, no spherule could be seen in the box, which was opened and examined but nothing was found. Number 13, this was a cool one too. He says glassy spherule,
with a small metal bead. But this is too small to give a definite identification
under a microscope. So, that's not a no. So, Jon didn't find any good candidates in the first 14 boxes. But, in the 15th box, he found this. And, he asked Jan to image
it using his technique. The sample was slightly darker, a little bit more elongated. But, at the end of the day Jon says that this too was probably terrestrial. - Damn.
- Yeah. So, while our results are
a little disappointing, it's good to know there's
someone in the world who's dedicating a lot
of time to this project. Jon's next steps are
trying to figure out where in the universe all of these
micrometeorites came from. Some scientists think that the material comes from the asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter. - Others think the
micrometeorites come from much further out in the solar system. From beyond Neptune, out in
the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. But, we also know that
some of the micrometeorites contain pre solar grains,
matter that comes from outside our solar system. And, is older than our sun. - Each new micrometeorite
is its own mystery. You could spend a lifetime wondering about a single specimen. Jon's even found a few that are covered with a sort of glass
foam, and no one knows what that's all about. But, here it is. It never gets old. - I think they are very beautiful. And, I think, and surprising. I found 1,340 as of today. And, I still, each time I find one more, my heart really jumped
one extra heartbeat. - Hey everyone, thanks for watching. This is the first episode in a new series we're working on called Trial and Error. Where we try a new experiment every month, and document the process along the way. Stay tuned for more, and let us know in the comments below if
there are any experiments you'd like us to try. Thanks.
i need a book full of those layered SEM images for my coffee table — those are some really beautiful lil nuggets.