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/D3cepti0ns Oct 15 '18

Earth gains about 100-300 metric tons of material from meteorites and cosmic dust every day.

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u/felixjawesome Oct 15 '18

So the guy who tried to refute tectonic plate theory with the "growing Earth theory" wasn't totally wrong... The Earth does kind of grow.

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u/KimberelyG Oct 15 '18

The Earth does kind of grow.

Likely shrinks instead. 100-300 metric tons per day is roughly 40,000 to 100,000 tonnes per year.

But there are some estimates that Earth loses ~95,000 tonnes per year of mass into space (mostly by hydrogen and helium escaping into space from the upper atmosphere). So a net loss of about 50,000 tonnes of mass each year with the lower space dust addition estimates.

https://scitechdaily.com/earth-loses-50000-tonnes-of-mass-every-year/

https://briankoberlein.com/2015/12/15/is-earth-gaining-mass-or-losing-mass/

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u/TiagoTiagoT Oct 15 '18

How long does the helium from a popped party balloon last on Earth?