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3. Asteroid Surface Materials from Reflectance Spectroscopy: A Review
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Abstract
The quality and quantity of asteroidal spectral reflectance data has increased rapidly in recent years. This data can be either (a) classified into spectral, polarization and/or albedo groups (e.g., ‘C’, ‘S’, etc.) which should tend to lump together grossly similar materials, or (b) interpreted utilizing laboratory and theoretical understanding of spectral features (e.g., absorption bands, continuum shape and slope) which are diagnostic of mineralogy or mineral chemistry. Mineral assemblages have been identified on asteroid surfaces which are comparable to most known meteorite types or which have undergone the types of processes (e.g., melting and differentiation) necessary to produce the meteoritic assemblages. The ordinary chondrites, which dominate the meteoritic flux reaching the Earth’s surface, are very rare or absent on Main Belt asteroids but appear common on the small asteroids which approach or cross the orbit of the Earth. The present interpretations of asteroidal spectra are not yet quantitative enough to permit the evaluation of specific asteroids as the sources bodies of particular meteorite specimens in terrestrial collections.
- Type
- Part IV. Physical Nature of Asteroids
- Information
- International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 39: Comets, Asteroids, Meteorites: Interrelations, Evolution and Origins , December 1977 , pp. 199 - 218
- Copyright
- Copyright © A.H. Delsemme 1977
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