Author(s)

Marc Mignonat

Société d’Astronomie des Pyrénées Occidentales, Pau, France.

The studies of the glaciologists show that, since 30,000 years, the Earth receives every year approximately 40,000 tons of dust, dust with an average size about 200 microns. By determining of which volume these 40,000 T come and by showing that the density of this volume is significant within the density of the milky way, I have tried to estimate the mass of dust contained in the Galaxy. To support that this density close to earth is representative, arguments are given: 1) the distribution of great dust is largely homogeneous in the galaxy (what does not exclude the existence of gas or dust clouds with different densities in the milky way); 2) there would be a minimum size that I have calculated for micrometeorites in the solar environment, and so there would be a lack of the micrometeorites with a size between 5 and 50 microns. So the density would not be greater in the solar system. Next, a very simple rough calculation (as the one made by the observatory of Paris in 1910) allows estimating this mass near 4 times that of the dark matter. So, the interstellar dust with a large size (>200 μ) could it be the missing mass? A verification method is proposed to confirm or refute this hypothesis.

Dark Matter, Dust, Galaxies: ISM

Mignonat, M. (2019) Missing Mass and Galactic Dust with a Size Greater than 200 Microns, Minimum Size of the Micrometric Dust around the Sun. Journal of Modern Physics, 10, 548-556. doi: 10.4236/jmp.2019.105038.