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Dust from a comet has been discovered on the Earth's surface for the first time, locked inside the ancient ice sheet that covers Antarctica.

The discovery is expected to reveal new clues about how our solar system formed as scientists study the tiny comet particles more closely. 

Researchers found the comet dust after drilling almost 58 feet (17 metres) into the Antarctic snow at a place called Tottuki Point, around 10 miles north of the Japanese Syowa Research Station.

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Electron microscope images of meteorite particles found in the Antarctic ice around Tottuki Point, which were found to contain the same minerals, metal compounds and structures that have been found in comet dust

After melting the ice they discovered thousands of particles measuring from the size of a grain of talcum powder to the width of a human hair.

They were initially thought to be the remains of meteorites that have broken up in the Earth's atmosphere in the past.

However, when scientists examined 40 of the particles more closely, they found they were identical to the kind of material that has been gathered from comets, known as chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles.

The discovery is considered to be particularly surprising because the highly porous fragments are extremely fragile and were not thought to be able to survive Earth's weather.

To find them on one of the harshest environments in the planet is perhaps even more surprising, but it was probably the extreme cold that helped to preserve them, trapping them in the ice.

Professor Takaaki Noguchi, lead author of the study and a meteorite researcher at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, said: 'In this paper we report the discovery of more than 40 chondritic porous micrometeorites in the surface snow and blue ice of Antarctica, which are indistinguishable from chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles.

'It is therefore considered that chondritic porous micrometeorites are chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles that have fallen to Earth and have survived the terrestrial environment.'

Comets are some of the oldest objects in the solar system and are thought to be made from the material left over from when our solar system first formed.

Composed of a combination of ice and rock, some scientists believe they may have been responsible for first bringing water and organic molecules to Earth that led to the formation of life.

Fragile comet particles were not thought to be able to survive the environment here on Earth but the cold temperatures in Antarctica locked them inside ancient ice, helping to protect them from the environment

Comets leave behind a distinctive tail of dust and gas, which is produced as they heat up and become unstable

Comet ISON passed close to the Sun in November 2013 and Russian scientists have been searching in Antarctica for dust particles that may be carried to Earth by the solar wind - the latest findings will raise hopes

By studying them, researchers hope to gain an insight into how our solar system evolved and perhaps even unlock how life first began on our planet.

Until now scientists have only been able to obtain comet dust by flying missions high in the Earth's atmosphere, where tiny particles left behind from the tails of passing comets can be collected.

However, this can be painstaking work, with several hours of flying yielding just one particle of dust.

Already the Japanense scientists, whose work is published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, have found dozens of particles from comets and with thousands of others in their sample still to be identified, the haul could be huge.

The dust in Antarctica is also cleaner as it can be filtered from the melted ice, while dust collected in the atmosphere becomes coated in oils used to trap the particles, making them difficult to study.

Recently Nasa flew a mission to the comet Wild 2 (seen in the gif to the right) where its Stardust spacecraft collected samples of dust and returned them to Earth.

The Japanese scientists found features in their comet dust samples from Antarctica that are almost identical to those seen in the dust collected by Stardust and those collected in the atmosphere.

They have yet to determine the age of the ice where the particles were found, which may help to reveal when they fell to earth. 

The particles they found were spherical and measured between 10 micrometres to just over 60 micrometres. 

These were composed of a glass like material with metal and sulphides embedded in them. They also featured whisker like crystals of the mineral enstatite.

Professor Noguchi said: 'They also contained low-iron–manganese-enriched and low-iron–chromium-enriched ferromagnesian silicates, kosmochlor-rich high-calcium pyroxene, roedderite and carbonaceous nanoglobules. 

'These components have previously been discovered in primitive solar system materials such as the cometary particles recovered from the 81P/Wild 2 comet. 

'The most outstanding feature is the presence of kosmochlor-rich high-Ca pyroxene and roedderite, which suggest that they have building blocks in common cometary dust particles.'

The results have excited planetary scientists around the world as it offers a rich source of comet material for study and checking against the results from dust collected in the atmosphere. 

The comet dust was found among thousands of meteorite particles in ice 58 feet deep at Tottuki Point, where several glaciers meet 10 miles north of the Japanese Syowa Research Station in Antarctica

The scientists found 'whiskers' of the mineral enstatite (shown above) similar to those found in comet dust

Speaking to the journal Science, Dr Larry Nittler, from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, said: 'It's very exciting for those of us who study these kinds of extraterrestrial materials, because it opens up a whole new way to get access to them. 

'They've found a new source for something that's very interesting and very rare."

Earlier this year Russian scientists announced they hoped to collect fresh dust particles in Antarctica from the comet ISON that may fall there after it lit up the sky in November 2013 when it had a close encounter with the Sun.

Although they have still to announce any results, the latest findings will raise hopes that they will be able to survive the fall to Earth.

The Japanese work builds on work by French scientists who reported finding unusual comet-like fragments in the snow in Antarctica.

Dr Cécile Engrand, a meteorite researcher from Paris-Sud University in Orsay who led that work, said: 'The study of these cometary particles will help shed more light on the material that served for planetary formation.

'They are the best witnesses that we have of that period of time.' 

Take a tour of the Syowa Station in Antarctica as a researcher goes for a jog