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Chondrites ~85% of falls
- formed in the solar nebula
stony
Achondrites ~8% of falls
- formed by igneous processes near the surface of major or
minor planets
Stony irons ~1% of falls
Irons ~6% of falls
- formed by fragmentation of core-mantle differentiated
asteroids
Meteorites that are finds are likely to be iron, because these are obviously
different from Earths rocks. Whereas the stony meteorites can blend in with
other rocks when viewed by untrained eye
Origin of Meteorites
Radioactive dating puts ages at 4.6 Byr
Meteorites originate in silicon and metal rich
meteoroids (asteroids), not the icy cometary
material that would burn up in the atmosphere
Iron meteorites suggest molten cores. The
heat source would not have lasted long, and
this is consistent with a picture where the
meteorites formed early in the history of the
solar nebula
Interactions with cosmic rays from the solar
wind alter or age the meteorites, but there
isnt that much aging apparent, suggesting
that the meteorites must have been protected
under layers or rock until recently
Meteorites originated relatively recently (<1
Byr) in collisions between asteroids or
planetesimals
Iron Meteorites
Rare
Interior generally shows complex structure
called Widmanstatten patterns formed from
iron-nickel alloys and the very high degree
of order requires that the molten metal
must have cooled extremely slowly (~20 K
every Myr)
Must originate in the cores of meteoroids
large enough to be molten (to support
differentiation) and large enough to have a
significant insulating layer that leads to
very slow cooling of the molten core
Stony Meteorites
Rich in silicates or stony materials
The most common type is chondrite (from
the glassy inclusions called chondrules),
which have the same composition as the
Sun with all volatile gasses (H, He) missing
Expected to be original samples of material
that condensed in the solar nebula
Glassy chondrules are bits of melted rocks
that cooled too quickly to form ordered
crystalline structures
Chemical classes of chondrites
CI (Ivuna) carbonaceous ~4% of falls
CM (Murchison)
CO (Ornans)
CV (Vigarano)
H (high iron) ordinary ~79% of falls
L (low iron)
LL (low-low)
EH (high iron) enstatite ~2% of falls
EL (low iron)
Structure of chondrites
Matrix: dark, fine-
grained background
Chondrules: nearly
spherical droplets,
typically of mm-size
CAI (Calcium-Aluminum-
rich Inclusions) are
whitish, irregularly
shaped
Meteoritic
compounds
Chemical equilibrium
reaction network of
solids in the solar
nebula
Each mineral is marked
at the temperature
where it condenses or
sublimates
Chondrite formation
129I 16 129Xe
244Pu 82 fission Xe
Achondrites / parent bodies
Model:
=5
c (r ) 1.4 r Myr
c is catastrophic
collisional half-time of
meteoroids that are
crossing the MBAs (r in
cm)
(Wetherill 1985, Farinella
et al. 1998)
Recent Results: Bottke et al. 2006 (1)
Meteoroid flux at
Mars: <4.410-6
meteoroids km-2 h-1,
Masses > 4 g
Flux at Earth: 10-6
meteoroids km-2 h-1
(Grn et al. 1985)
New mechanism of triggering meteorite
delivery to Earth
Yarkovsky thermal forces on Veritas family
The End
www.kosmochemie.de iron meteorite with shiny fusion crust (width ca. 25 cm)