PROJECT STARDUST:

THE HUNT FOR MICROMETEORITES IN THE OREGON COASTAL

ENVIRONMENTS

BY HALEY DEAN

“The material contained in this document is based upon work supported by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant or cooperative agreement. Any

opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.”

Hi! I’m Haley Dean and this is my faculty

mentor, Bill Lilley. Through funding from

the Oregon Space Grant Consortium’s

STARR Research Award in partnership with

NASA, we became successful

micrometeorite hunters. Teamwork makes

the dream work!

Seven sites were selected along the Oregon Coast

based on their diversity and lack of potential

industrial/trade material.

• Moolak Beach, Newport, OR (surf collection)

• Beverly Beach, Newport, OR (surf/freshwater

integration collection)

• Oregon Coast Community College, Newport, OR

(storm-drain collection)

• Newport High School (rooftop collection)

• Bill’s home in Gleneden Beach, OR (storm-drain

collection)

• Taft Elementary School, Lincoln City, OR (rooftop

collection)

• Tyee Formation near Eddyville, OR (landslide

collection)Beverly Beach, Newport, OR

(surf/freshwater collection)

Description and Execution:

MATERIALS

USED:

SET OF LAB SIEVES TO 250 MICRONS

CUSTOM CREATED STORM DRAIN

COLLECTORS WITH RARE EARTH MAGNETS

LEICA COMPOUND LIGHT MICROSCOPES FOR INITIAL OPTICAL

VERIFICATION

LARGE NEODYMIUM RARE EARTH MAGNETS

FOR HUNTING OCEANSIDE AND ON

ROOFTOPS

CUSTOM INVENTION “BILL HALEY’S COMET COLLECTOR” FOR DEEP

SEA METEORITE COLLECTION

SHEER, UNWAVERING DETERMINATION

OREGON COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE, NEWPORT, OR (STORM-DRAIN COLLECTION)

•We designed, built, and installed six of these storm-

drain collectors at OCCC and checked them regularly.

•These collectors were also installed at the Lilley home

in Newport, OR.

•Once collected, we washed, prepared, and sifted

through all our samples back in the lab.

OUTCOME:

We found several micrometeorite candidates!

Most of them came from Newport High School and the storm-drain collectors at the Lilley home in Newport, OR.

EVALUATION AND ANALYSIS:

• This project was a success!!

• Out of 28 candidates that we found, 3

were optically verified by Dr. Marc

Fries, Cosmic Dust Curator at NASA

• Due to COVID-19 final SEM

verification will commence by NASA

Curation when the pandemic restrictions

have lifted.

• Of those candidates, 2 are green

glass (vitreous) micrometeorites

(MMs) and 1 cryptocrystalline

(aka “Turtle-back) MM (all

pictured on previous slide)

• At this time, all candidates were

mailed to Dr. Fries in Houston,

TX.

THOUGHTS ON RESEARCH IN

GENERAL:

•Research is the integral beginning to solving the great mysteries of all things unknown. It has been an honor to contribute to this field and refine techniques to successfully hunt for those elusive little minxes called micrometeorites.

TAKE A MOMENT AND

WATCH THIS VIDEO ON

PROJECT STARDUST!

Total time spent was over 178.5 hours.

A true labor of love for the love of

science!!

Special thanks to a few folks who really made things

possible:

• Dr. Marc Fries, Cosmic Dust Curator and his team at NASA Curation in Houston,

TX.

• Bill Lilley, Faculty mentor and over-all incredible human who taught me about

micrometeorites to begin with!

• Dave Price, Oregon Coast Community College Marketing guru.

• Matthew Fisher, Oregon Space Grant Consortium representative and amazing

wordsmith/scientist.

• Catherine Lanier, Oregon Space Grant Consortium Administrative Director.

• Dr. Grant Mitman, OCCC faculty who generously donated time teaching me to

image with a research-grade microscope.

• My sons, Afton and River, for believing in me and encouraging me in this!

• Kealy Boyd, Lab Assistant and OCCC fellow student.

• Everyone on the OCCC Foundation board that helped us with closing the gap in

funding!!! We appreciate you so much!

References:

Genge, M. J., Engrand, C., Gounelle, M., & Taylor, S. (2008). The classification of micrometeorites. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 43(3), 497–515. doi: 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2008.tb00668.x

Larsen, J. (2019). On the trail of stardust: the guide to finding micrometeorites: tools, techniques, and identification. Beverly, MA: Voyageur Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group.

Zolensky, M. E. (1994). Analysis of interplanetary dust: Nasa/Lpi Workshop, Houston, Tx, May 1993. New York: AIP Press.