Comet Dust Found In Antarctica

sciencehabit writes: Researchers have discovered comet dust preserved in the ice and snow of Antarctica, the first time such particles have been found on Earth's surface (abstract). The discovery unlocks a promising new source of this material. The oldest astronomical particles available for study, comet dust can offer clues about how our solar system formed.

Just the beginning

[hcs_$reboot]

After most of that ice melts, thanks to global warming, other interesting discoveries are to be made.

Re:

[BarbaraHudson]

"After most of that ice melts, thanks to global warming, other interesting discoveries are to be made."

You mean like this? [imdb.com]

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

No, that's just a silly movie. The discoveries of this university research project in the 1930s are much more disturbing: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/... [wikisource.org]

Re:Just the beginning

[YoungHack]

In the mathematical models I've seen, ice in Antartica growing is in fact a sign of global warming. Thinking that warming is going to be uniform is hopelessly naive on a world with the complex ocean and atmospheric phenomena we have.

Re:

[eric_harris_76]

Whereas thinking that a huge and hugely complex system can be accurately modeled is not naive? Especially when so many of those models have been off in their predictions by a factor of two?

Re:Just the beginning

[Dutchmaan]

Antarctic SEA ice is growing.. Antarctic LAND ice is decreasing.

If I had to venture a guess, land ice melting into the sea lowers the salt levels of the surrounding waters making a higher freezing temp and thus increased sea ice.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

Oh please, it's just a little dust. We can always just sweep it under the carpet, which we can lay on the freshly bared land.

Just the beginning

[theronb]

Great - a whole new continent to drill for oil and gas! Environmental problems are always trumped by economics if there's money to be made.

just the beginning

[turkeydance]

of a sci-fi movie. take the comet dust inside, where it's warm, and things start to happen.

Re:

[dpilot]

Or just read "The Year When Stardust Fell" or "In the Days of the Comet" for other examples. Many would say more interesting ideas, because they're not simple monster movies.

link to 2010 CNRS press release

[jerome]

Cocorico ! Just a link to previous work on the same subject (as mentionned in TFA) :
http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1731.htm

I was lucky enough to see a talk by J. Duprat about collecting extraterrestrial dust in Antarctica a few years ago. A amazingly cool guy !

Re:

[hcs_$reboot]

Looks cool [www.cnrs.fr], indeed.