Physical properties of meteorites—Applications in space missions to asteroids

Abstract

available online at http://meteoritics.org Abstract-Based on reflectance spectroscopy and chemical/mineralogical remote sensing methods, it is generally assumed that asteroids are parent bodies for most meteorites reaching the Earth. However, more detailed observations indicate that differences exist in composition between asteroids and meteorites resulting in difficulties when searching for meteorite-asteroid match. Physical properties of meteorites-Applications in space missions to asteroidsWe show that among other physical parameters the magnetic susceptibility of an asteroid can be determined remotely from the magnetic induction by solar wind using an orbiting spacecraft or directly using the AC coil on the lander, or it can be measured in samples returned to the laboratory. The shape corrected value of the true magnetic susceptibility of an asteroid can be compared to those of meteorites in the existing database, allowing closer match between asteroids and meteorites. The database of physical properties contains over 700 samples and was recently enlarged with measurements of meteorites in European museums using mobile laboratory facility.

The thermal and physical characteristics of the Gao-Guenie (H5) meteorite

“…Britt and Consolmagno (2003) find /r grain S ¼ 3.6470.12 g/cm 3 for the H chondrite meteorite group in general, while Moore et al (1999) report a measured grain density of 3.6770.02 g/cm 3 for a single 31.68-g Gao-Guenie sample. Our grain density of the Jilin (H5) sample is about 4% smaller than the value published by Kohout et al (2008), making the porosity of our sample slightly smaller than theirs: 9.8% versus 13%, but such differences are not deemed to be significant.…”

“…Our bulk density measurement for the Jilin (H5) fragment is almost identical to that published by Kohout et al (2008) for a 73.4 g specimen from the same fall. Wilkison and Robinson (2000b) report an average bulk density of 3.58 g/cm 3 for a 20.61 g specimen of Jilin, which seems high compared with our average.…”

Internal structure and physical properties of the Asteroid 2008 TC3 inferred from a study of the Almahata Sitta meteorites

“…The samples were measured using a mobile laboratory described in Kohout et al (2008). Bulk volume was determined using a modified Archimedean method (Consolmagno and Britt, 1998;Macke et al, 2010) incorporating glass beads $0.75 mm in diameter.…”

Magnetic classification of stony meteorites: 3. Achondrites

“…List of meteorite collections entered in the database (in chronological order of measurements, and with the same numbering as in Rochette et al 2003), as well as number of measured specimens and the measurement instruments used. 1-5, 6-7, 17, 22, 31, and 33 were previously and partly published in Rochette et al (2001a), Thero et al (1993), Smith et al (2006), Kohout et al (2008), and Lin et al (2008) equivalent, for the Helsinki data) was used, allowing samples up to a mass of 450 g to be measured, although coil saturation may be already reached for 50-100 g highly magnetic samples. The high homogeneity of the solenoid coil internal field allowed us to obtain reliable results on samples with anisometric shape (fragments, slice, full stones).…”

“…Cross-calibration with the Helsinki (1993) data was discussed in Rochette et al (2003). For the Helsinki (2008) database Kohout et al (2008) used a portable instrument (Hämäläinen TH-1) of low sensitivity compared with the KLY-2. Therefore we merged in our database only the data with sufficient accuracy (i.e., large enough mass and logχ).…”