News article about the Norwegian Jon who has found dust from meteorites in the gutter at Borgsyssel Museum.
"Norwegian Jon hunts for stardust - hailed by Nasa for "impossible" discovery
The rocks are so small that it is impossible to see them, but large enough to teach us more about where we come from.
- We are trying to find out how our solar system has arisen. There are small particles and big questions, says star dust researcher Jon Larsen.
It started as a hobby for the 62-year-old from Bærum. With simple and cheap equipment, a strainer and a magnet, he looks for micrometeorites - or star dust, as it is also called.
Every day, around a hundred tonnes fall to the ground. But the rocks are tiny, usually between 0.1 and 0.4 millimeters. Thus, they are very difficult to detect.
Everything we know about stardust is based on analyzes of half a teaspoon of micrometeorites.
- It is the total that has been found. We only scratch the surface, says Larsen.
Larsen has found a way to find the small rocks in inhabited areas - something the geologists thought was impossible.
- Only six years ago it was completely unthinkable. But now we are in a phase with opportunities for many new discoveries, he says.
New rare piece
In mid-June, he visited the Borgarsyssel Museum in Sarpsborg in connection with the museum's 100th anniversary.
Hidden in a gutter, he found 55 micrometeorites.
On Friday, the findings were analyzed at the Department of Geosciences at the University of Oslo, where Larsen himself is a guest researcher.
- We found platinum crystals. It has only been seen twice before in the world, the third was found in Sarpsborg. It is absolutely incredible, says Larsen.
- We know that platinum can only be formed in one place, and that is in an exploding supernova. There is a new piece in the puzzle, he says.
A supernova is a giant explosion that can occur at the end of a star's lifetime.
Larsen's breakthrough came in 2016. At that time, his work was analyzed and verified by Professor Matthew Genge, one of the world's foremost experts on micrometeorites, at the Natural History Museum in London.
The following year, Larsen was invited to Nasa's headquarters in Houston, Texas. The researchers there were convinced that it was impossible to find stardust where people live.
Now they have turned.
- Jon's work is very important. It has opened a new door to the collection of extraterrestrial samples, says Dr. Michael Zolensky in Nasa to NRK.
He is responsible for Nasa's collection of stardust and is considered one of the world's foremost in its field.
- I envision that there will be new researchers who were influenced to become researchers due to the discoveries of Jon Larsen, he says.
- One day someone will cross the finish line and find out how life on earth came about. If I can contribute a small piece in that puzzle, then I will turn in the grave and smile, says Larsen himself.
Research director Marianne Løken at the Østfold Museums thinks the finds that were made on one of their rooftops are great.
- It's fantastic. This shows that a discovery does not have to be so large for the effect to be of great significance, says Løken.
She hopes the museum will have the opportunity to create an exhibition - despite the fact that the micrometeorites are the size of a dot.
- It is not so easy to exhibit, but there are some fantastic pictures. We hope we can create an exhibition where we connect our own collections to modern updated research."
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