[meteorite-list] 1459 Magnya and NWA 011

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Aug 18 16:26:20 2004
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000002B000026B4_at_paulinet.de>

Mystery Meteorite with a Molten Past

Planetary scientists suspect that many primordial asteroids must
have grown large enough to melt completely, yielding iron-rich cores
and silicate crusts before being shattered to pieces. After all, the
iron meteorites reaching Earth comprise dozens of unique compositional
types. Yet, among the thousands of known meteorites, only a relative
handful consist of basalt, the igneous rock type that would be most
common in those asteroidal crusts - and until recently all of them seemed
to have come from a single source, 4 Vesta. In the April 12th issue of
Science, Akira Yamaguchi (National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo)
and nine colleagues argue that a 40-gram stone called Northwest Africa
011 is a basaltic meteorite entirely unlike those from Vesta. Its parent
body is unknown; one candidate is 1459 Magnya, an outer-belt object
that was found to have a basalt spectrum two years ago. Still, though
lacking a pedigree, NWA 011 is a significant find. As asteroid expert
Richard P. Binzel (MIT) explains, "Yamaguchi's results (and those for
1459 Magnya) are the 'eureka' that complement what the iron meteorites
have been telling us: there must have been other Vestas out there."

(Sky & Telescope News Brief April 25, 2002)
Received on Wed 18 Aug 2004 04:26:13 PM PDT