Scientists find fossilised cosmic dust in white cliffs of Dover

The significance of this discovery, published in the

a

journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, is that the fossilised cosmic dust could provide a new source of information about the early solar system.

Mr Martin Suttle, lead author and a research postgraduate from Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "The iconic white cliffs of Dover are an important source of fossilised creatures that help us to determine the changes and upheavals the planet has undergone many millions of years ago. It is so exciting because we've now discovered that fossilised space dust is entombed alongside these creatures, which can also provide us with information about what was happening in our solar system at the time."

The team also report in a separate study published in the journal Geology that they've discovered a way for determining if cosmic dust was clay rich. Clays can only form if water is present, so a method for determining clay content could act like a cosmic divining rod for determining the presence of water rich asteroids in our solar system.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-scientists-fossilised-cosmic-white-cliffs.html#jCp