Meteoroid ablation spheres from deep-sea sediments

Abstract

The paper deals with an examination of spheres that are magnetically extracted from mid-Pacific abyssal clays that are up to half a million years old. The spheres are divided into three groups using their dominant mineralogy - namely, iron, glassy, and silicate. Most spheres were formed from particles that completely melted as they separated from their parent meteoroids during the ablation process. It is concluded that the mineralogy and composition of the deep-sea spheres are identical in many respects to the meteorite fusion crusts, laboratory-created ablation debris, and the ablated interplanetary dust particles in the stratospheric collection.