[meteorite-list] Stardust & Meteorites

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Mar 16 18:08:00 2006
Message-ID: <200603141733.k2EHXXk03350_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Hi,

During yesterday's press conference, Mike Zolensky mentioned that the minerals
seen so far in Stardust's comet samples match the CH chondrites the best. The
CI chondrites were always suspected to be cometary in nature because of their
high water content.

Now that it looks like comets can form close the the Sun, well inside the orbit
of Mercury, this weakens the case for E chondrites as having planets
as their parent bodies. The E chondrites formed inside of Earth's orbit, and
there was speculation they may possibly have come from either Mercury or Venus.
But now the Stardust results indicates small bodies can originate close to the
Sun.

Ron Baalke
Received on Tue 14 Mar 2006 12:33:32 PM PST