[meteorite-list] There are no silly questions? Wait until you haveread that :-)

[almitt]

Hi Bernhard and all,

Bernhard Rems wrote:


4) Iron meteorites originate from the core of a large and destroyed
planetoid.

Furthermore - there must have been at least two bodies of that size
(because planetoids do not explode, they have to collide to eject core
material into the solar system. Is this assumption right or wrong?

AL says:-)

O.K. one other comment from me then I'll give people a brake. Most of the
Iron meteorites come from 12 distinct parent bodies (based on chemical
classification). We then have an additional 80 some anomalous that provide us
with the remainder of our iron meteorites. Some 86% of all iron meteorites
belong to the 12 main groups.

As McSween says the core of the problem, is iron meteorites have pretty plain
spectra and light coming from them (albedo) is poor. Also iron meteorites
represent a highly differentiated body one that has been heated (of course)
and altered doing a resetting of the isotopes that might help us shed light
on their origin. Silicates we find in iron meteorites sometimes help us out a
bit with this.

--AL Mitterling