[meteorite-list] Strange Asteroids Baffle Scientists

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:09:02 -0500
Message-ID: <040101c7e4df$23f2e7b0$1051e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi,

    The original paper on this, "Two new basaltic asteroids
in the Outer Main Belt?" by R. Duffard and F. Roig, published
in April, 2007, can be found in its entirity at:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0704/0704.0230v1.pdf

     These are very small asteroids (Kumakiri is 8.5 km and
1991 RY16 is only 7.3 km in diameter) and are located in orbits
that mean they could never have been chips off the old Vesta (nor
apparently members of any other asteroidal "family."

    They used a wide survey (the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) to find
candidates for closer examination. These two are from the first
three examined closely, which suggests the rest of the list may
well contain a lot more small basaltic bodies from as-yet-unknown
differentiated parent bodies that were totally disrupted.


Sterling K. Webb
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Courtois Julien" <ivlianvs at gmail.com>
To: <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 10:18 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Strange Asteroids Baffle Scientists


From: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070821_basalt_asteroid.html

Two space rocks in our solar system's outer asteroid belt might
contain mineral evidence for a new class of asteroids or long eroded
mini-worlds.


The asteroids, (7472) Kumakiri and (10537) 1991 RY16, were found to
contain basalt, a grey-black mineral that forms much of the crust on
Earth and the other inner planets.

Basalt has also been found in space rocks shed by Vesta, the third
largest object in the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of
Jupiter and Mars. The presence of basalt is evidence that an object
was once large enough to sustain internal heating.


"We need now to observe both objects in the near-infrared range to
confirm whether they have a basaltic surface," said study leader Rene
Duffard of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Grenada,
Spain. "If they do, we will need to try to work out where they came
from and the fate of their parent objects. If they do not, we will
have to come up with a new class of asteroid."


[...]
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Received on Wed 22 Aug 2007 01:09:02 PM PDT