[meteorite-list] Parent Bodies Galore?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:08 2004
Message-ID: <200304141607.JAA00978_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

>
> Dear List,
> With Moon meteorites, Mars meteorites, and Mercury
> meteorites now possible, it's also important to
> inquire whether there are Phobos meteorites, Deimos
> meteorites, Amalthea meteorites, etc. especially
> since these primitive bodies tend to resemble many
> other ordinary meteorites anyway.

Anything is possible, but the only specific parent bodies we
can currently correlate meteorites with any reasonable certainty
are Mars, the Moon and Vesta. There are no confirmed
meteorites from Venus or Mercury. There are a couple of suspects,
but it is based more on speculation than hard evidence. The
main problem with identifying meteorites from Phobos and Deimos
is that we currently cannot differentiate any possible meteorites
from these satellites from similiar-type asteroids (Phobos and Deimos are
very likely captured asteroids). Likewise, trying to match
up ordinary chondrites to a specific body will also be
problematic if there are many candidates, and can only be done
if there is something very unique about its composition.

Ron Baalke
Received on Mon 14 Apr 2003 12:07:06 PM PDT