[meteorite-list] meteorite from Phobos? Kaidun

From: Philip R. Burns <pib_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:29:57 2004
Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20030917203112.02f48110_at_pibburns.com>

At 09:07 PM 9/17/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>You guys are dancing around the answer to the question. The Vernadsky
>Institute has in their possession a meteorite that they believe came from
>Phobos.
>Why do they think so? Because it has a spectral match with carbonaceous
>chondrites as does Phobos and it has at least 2 clasts that are
>Shergottite like
>that they theorize were blasted off Mars and were later captured by Phobos
>and
>incorporated into its regolith, before being blasted into space and
>eventually
>falling to Earth.
>
>The meteorite is Kaidun, which I mentioned about 2 weeks ago.

The Russian claim is interesting. Kaidun is certainly an unusual
meteorite, sort of a "meteorite collection" in and of itself, a polymict
breccia containing carbonaceous chondrite matter and enstatite/achondrite
lithologies. Interestly some clasts which appear in Kaidun appear to have
an oxygen isotope and petrological composition matching that of Tagish
Lake. The reflectance spectra of D-class asteroids match that of Tagish
Lake most closely. Portions of Phobos and Deimos appear to have a D-class
composition. However, the closest spectral match to Tagish Lake is
asteroid 511 Davida. I think there is a story here we're not able to read
clearly yet.


-- Philip R. "Pib" Burns
    pib_at_pibburns.com
    http://www.pibburns.com/
Received on Wed 17 Sep 2003 09:52:01 PM PDT