[meteorite-list] Strange Asteroids Baffle Scientists

From: ensoramanda <ensoramanda_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:47:14 +0100
Message-ID: <46CCBCF2.70907_at_ntlworld.com>

Hi Sterling/All,

Missed this in April and only just read the recent report.

So does this mean a re-evaluation of the HED group of meteorites that
have up to now been associated with Vesta?
Are there some HED's that show different characteristics and could
therefor be seperated out from the rest as possible candidates to fit
these new basaltic asteroids?

Graham Ensor, Nr Barwell UK

Sterling K. Webb wrote:

>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 (Kumted 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
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----- 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 06:47:14 PM PDT