Computer Science
Scientific paper
May 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004natur.429..275j&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 429, Issue 6989, pp. 275-277 (2004).
Computer Science
43
Scientific paper
Asteroid collisions in the main belt eject fragments that may eventually land on Earth as meteorites. It has therefore been a long-standing puzzle in planetary science that laboratory spectra of the most populous class of meteorite (ordinary chondrites, OC) do not match the remotely observed surface spectra of their presumed (S-complex) asteroidal parent bodies. One of the proposed solutions to this perplexing observation is that `space weathering' modifies the exposed planetary surfaces over time through a variety of processes (such as solar and cosmic ray bombardment, micro-meteorite bombardment, and so on). Space weathering has been observed on lunar samples, in Earth-based laboratory experiments, and there is good evidence from spacecraft data that the process is active on asteroid surfaces. Here, we present a measurement of the rate of space weathering on S-complex main-belt asteroids using a relationship between the ages of asteroid families and their colours. Extrapolating this age-colour relationship to very young ages yields a good match to the colour of freshly cut OC meteorite samples, lending strong support to a genetic relationship between them and the S-complex asteroids.
Ivezic Zeljko
Jedicke Robert
Juric Mario
Nesvorný David
Whiteley Robert
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