The universe intrudes into our lives every day. Most people are not aware of it. Neutrinos are said to pass through us every second without people noticing it. A more visible sign of the universe is cosmic dust. Cosmic dust could be found in cities as well, as a study shows.
Three major cities have been found to have cosmic dust. The researchers are made up of people from Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum in London, Project Stardust in Norway and Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. This cosmic dust is said to be leftovers from the creation of the solar system. Previously it was thought that this cosmic dust could only be found in its pure form in Antarctica.
John Larson, an amateur space scientist from Project Stardust, has a different idea. He suggested that perhaps cosmic dust could also be found in cities. He went to researchers at Imperial College London with the suggestion. They then began to study three cities to find out if there is a possibility of cosmic dust in cities. The three cities chosen for the study are Oslo, Berlin and Paris, according to Phys Org,
Matthew Genge from Imperial College London said that the idea of cosmic dust falling into Earth has been known since the 1940s. Looking for cosmic dust in cities though was thought to be hard since it would have been mixed with dust coming from the area itself. Genge said that he was at first skeptical about the idea when Larson first approached them.
The cosmic dust found has also been more significant than anticipated, as New Scientist reports. Typically cosmic dust particles have only been around 0.01 millimeters across. The ones found in the cities are about 0.3 millimeters across, which is a significant amount.
With the finding of cosmic dust in cities, looking for them would be much easier. It has been speculated that the cosmic dust particles fell to the Earth at 12 kilometers per second. That makes it the fastest moving dust on Earth. The study has shown then that there is no doubt cosmic dust could be found in cities. ALMA has also been able to measure the amount of dust in forming planets, as a study has shown.
