[meteorite-list] Minor Planet families

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:32:53 +0000
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kY6N1phjkz_tQEi91gUqNqiXxYryxOg9vXtZWRPed3zoQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Thanks to everybody for their enlightening posts on this
question....answering many aspects that I had wondered about....an
interesting thread.

Graham

On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 2:59 PM, Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
> To elaborate on Rob's and Larry's comments, a further complication is that
> asteroids are placed into classes based on two major criteria: orbit and
> composition. The orbital classifications (like Apollo) are mainly determined
> by ratios of specific orbital elements. The compositional classes are
> primarily determined by spectral characteristics, and are often the classes
> of most interest to meteorite enthusiasts, given the ability to connect many
> meteorites to specific asteroid spectral families (e.g. V type asteroids are
> associated with HED meteorites). Only in a handful of cases do we have a
> recovered orbit for a meteorite fall, allowing for the possibility of
> recognizing the parent body's orbital classification as well.
>
> Chris
>
> *******************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
>
> On 2/26/2013 4:26 AM, lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu wrote:
>>
>> Hi Graham:
>>
>> I am far from an asteroid dynamics person, but many (but not all) asteroid
>> families tend to share compositional similarities and so may very well be
>> remnants of larger objects that have "recently" been broken up in a
>> collisional event. The families are usually (but not always) named for
>> their largest member. This is important in that if members of these
>> families are in the "right place" in the asteroid belt, their members'
>> orbits may be perturbed over time into Earth-crossing orbits and then
>> Earth-impacting orbits, so that they may be the sources of some of the
>> meteorites we see.
>>
>> Connecting individual asteroids to classes of meteorites is another story!
>>
>> Larry
>
>
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Received on Tue 26 Feb 2013 10:32:53 AM PST