Hugh Walters > Quotes

“His next task was to scoop up some dust and seal it in the metal container. It was when he bent closer still that he noticed a most peculiar thing. Looking intently, it seemed that the blue-grey powder was in motion. Grains of it kept leaping up a few centimetres and then falling back. It looked very much like a strange pot boiling, or as if the specks of dust were performing a weird native dance. Involuntarily Chris drew back the hand that had been extended to gather up a sample, and then he noticed something else. As the shadow cast by his arm, far sharper and deeper than an earthly shadow would be, moved over the surface, he saw that the dust in the shade remained still, only to begin its contortions as it came into the sunlight again. He reported the phenomenon to control. Frayling’s theory was that this peculiar movement was due to either the impact of micrometeorites—cosmic dust too small to see, or to the intense radiation from the sun. Lack of atmosphere, which would have consumed the tiny meteors by friction and which would have formed a shield against most radiation, was the cause.”
― Hugh Walters, Operation Columbus