Physics
Scientific paper
May 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agusm.p11a..01b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2004, abstract #P11A-01
Physics
6205 Asteroids And Meteoroids
Scientific paper
The near-Earth object (NEO) population contains the immediate precursors to meteorites studied in our laboratories. All meteorites, by definition of their intersection with Earth, were NEOs prior to their arrival. Because NEOs have dynamical lifetimes that are short (due to collisions with the sun, planets, or ejection) compared with the age of the solar system, all currently observed asteroid-like NEOs must have been supplied from reservoirs of small bodies such as from the main-asteroid belt or from extinct short period comets. Thus NEOs are the nexus of our study of asteroid-comet-meteorite relationships. What's more, by virtue of their proximity NEOs are the smallest observable planetary bodies, thereby providing a challenge to our understanding of planetary processes in low gravity regimes. Their proximity allows detailed study by radar and also makes them among the most easily accessible solar system destinations for sample return missions, human exploration, and space resource utilization. The small, but non-zero chance of a hazardous impact over human lifetimes brings a further pragmatic reason for NEO studies as well. In this talk we will overview our current understanding of NEO compositions and their links to meteorites. A particular focus will be on new insights to likely processes of space weathering that appear to be highly dependent on the surface age or the ability of a surface to retain a regolith. The diversity of NEO compositions appears to match that of the main asteroid belt. Some signatures of specific main-belt asteroid source regions are recognizable within the NEO population. In addition, compositional and source region signatures of NEOs suggest that the cometary contribution to the NEO population may be somewhat larger than previously thought.
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