[meteorite-list] Meteoroids Before Meteorites

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:54:52 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <55305.71.226.60.25.1236905692.squirrel_at_timber.lpl.arizona.edu>

Hi Eric:

Being an ordinary chondrite, West is probably similar in composition to
the S asteroids that have a reflectivity of something like 15%.

Larry

On Thu, March 12, 2009 5:31 pm, Eric Wichman wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> While looking at photos of our most recent extraterrestrial visitor, the
> West meteorite, I was wondering what the "meteoroid" looked like while
> floating around in space... Look how nice and white this piece is on the
> "inside". http://www.rocksfromspace.org/133g_Interior.JPG Fusion crust
> is only formed while entering our planets atmosphere. Meaning that this
> meteorite was obviously whitish in color while still a meteoroid. Right?
>
> Space is a vacuum, and a vacuum preserves things right? Look at the moon
> and all the wonderful craters and how wonderfully preserved they are. The
> moon never changes color except when viewed through our atmosphere. From
> space it looks the same as it did millions of years ago.
>
> Does this mean that the West meteoroid, while in space and "before" it
> hit our planet, was white? I mean, it's not like the minerals that make up
> the meteoroid change colors before hitting our planet. Right?
>
> I guess the reason I ask this is that we all see photos of asteroids
> that are dark gray, gray-black or brown blobs of space rock floating around
> the solar system. I think our perception of meteorites are quite
> different. We tend to think of rocks from space as dark rocks floating
> around aimlessly and randomly bumping into one another occasionally
> sending pieces our way to be pulled in by our planets gravity.
>
> Are there huge white rocks floating around out there? And if so,
> wouldn't they be slightly easier to spot than a dark blob of an asteroid?
>
> I hope these aren't dumb questions.
>
>
> Eric
> ______________________________________________
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>
>
Received on Thu 12 Mar 2009 08:54:52 PM PDT