What are soot particles?

Soot particles are like tiny, dark crumbs left behind when things burn.

Imagine you're lighting a candle or burning a piece of paper, soot is what comes out in the smoke. It's made up of really small pieces called particles, which are so tiny that you can’t see them with your eyes.

Think of soot particles as like dust, but even smaller, so small that if you had a million of them lined up side by side, they’d only take up about the width of a pencil. These little dark bits are what make smoke look grey or black sometimes.

You can find soot particles in the air when things burn, like in your kitchen if you're cooking on a stove, or even outside when there's a big fire. They’re also found in car exhaust and factory smoke, which is why sometimes the sky looks hazy or dark.

Soot particles might seem invisible, but they’re always around us, hiding in the air like tiny shadows waiting to be noticed.