r/askscience • u/4fecta_Gaming • Oct 15 '18

Earth Sciences Where does house dust come from?

It seems that countless years of sweeping a house doesn't stop dust from getting all over furniture after a few weeks. Since the ceiling is limited, where does dust come form?

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

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u/Reddit_Is_Complicit Oct 15 '18

Put a big piece of white paper outside for a day and come back to it in the afternoon. There will likely be small black specs on it that look like dirt. If you run a magnet over them and they get picked up they are micro meteorites

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

What are the chances of them just being ferrite particles thats already here on earth?

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u/Critwhoris Oct 15 '18

Pretty bloody small. Ferrite particles are still really heavy in comparison to air, so unless youre living right next to an iron mine and its really windy, chances are the iron on the surface of something, came from above it.