2021/03/01 by Lisa Kramër Ruggiu, Lisa Krämer Ruggiu, Pierre Beck +4
Chemistry · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Achondrite #Asteroid #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Carbonaceous chondrite #Chemistry #Chondrite #Chondrule #Geochemistry #Geology #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Meteorite #Mineral #Mineralogy #Parent body #Petrography #Physics #Planetary Science and Exploration #astro-ph.EP #physics.geo-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114393
published as Icarus, 2021
openalex publication_date 2021/03/01 · arxiv created 2021/05/05 · arxiv updated 2021/05/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Although spectral surveys and spacecraft missions provide information on small bodies, many important analyses can only be performed in terrestrial laboratories. For now, the total number of parent bodies represented in our meteorites collection is estimated to about 150 parent bodies, of which 50 parent bodies represented by the poorly studied ungrouped chondrites. Linking ungrouped meteorites to their parent bodies is thus crucial to significantly increase our knowledge of asteroids. To this end, the petrography of 25 ungrouped chondrites and rare meteorite groups was studied, allowing grouping into 6 petrographic groups based on texture, mineralogy, and aqueous and thermal parent body processing. Then, we acquired visible-near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy data, in order to compare them to ground-based telescopic observations of asteroids. The reflectance spectra of meteorites were obtained on powdered samples, raw samples and polished sections. Our results showed that sample preparation influences the shape of the spectra, and thus asteroid spectral matching, especially for carbonaceous chondrites. Overall, the petrographic groups defined initially coincide with reflectance spectral groups. We define links between some of the studied ungrouped chondrites and asteroid types that had no meteorite connection proposed before, such as some very primitive type 3.00 ungrouped chondrites to B-type or Cg-type asteroids. We also matched metamorphosed ungrouped carbonaceous chondrites to S-complex asteroids, suggesting that this complex is not only composed of ordinary chondrites or primitive achondrites, as previously established, but may also host carbonaceous chondrites. Conversely, some ungrouped chondrites could not be matched to any known asteroid type, showing that those are potential samples from yet unidentified asteroid types.