Tiny Traces of a Big Asteroid Breakup

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Meteorite, Fossil Meteorite, Chromite, Asteroid, L Chondrite Parent Body, Meteorite Flux

Scientific paper

Ancient geologic conditions in southern Sweden were ideal to preserve meteorites that fell to Earth about half a billion years ago. Researcher Birger Schmitz (working as a visiting professor at Rice University and now at the University of Lund, Sweden) and his colleagues in Goteborg, Sweden have analyzed over 40 of these rare fossil meteorites along with relict chromite grains collected from sites in a 250,000-square-kilometer area of 480-million-year-old limestone. They attribute the abundance and wide distribution of this space debris to a meteorite influx at least one hundred times more intense than the influx today. Rather than a smorgasbord of different types, cosmochemical evidence shows that the fossil meteorites are L or LL chondrites leading the team to conclude that these meteorites and chromite grains derived from a major collision in the asteroid belt. The age of the limestone is very close to the impact age of many L chondrites suggesting that this major collision was the breakup of the L chondrite parent body, possibly the largest impact in the asteroid belt in the last few billion years.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Tiny Traces of a Big Asteroid Breakup does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Tiny Traces of a Big Asteroid Breakup, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Tiny Traces of a Big Asteroid Breakup will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1030127

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.