[meteorite-list] Strange Asteroids Baffle Scientists

[Courtois Julien]

From: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070821_basalt_asteroid.html

Two space rocks in our solar system's outer asteroid belt might
contain mineral evidence for a new class of asteroids or long eroded
mini-worlds.


The asteroids, (7472) Kumakiri and (10537) 1991 RY16, were found to
contain basalt, a grey-black mineral that forms much of the crust on
Earth and the other inner planets.

Basalt has also been found in space rocks shed by Vesta, the third
largest object in the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of
Jupiter and Mars. The presence of basalt is evidence that an object
was once large enough to sustain internal heating.


"We need now to observe both objects in the near-infrared range to
confirm whether they have a basaltic surface," said study leader Rene
Duffard of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Grenada,
Spain. "If they do, we will need to try to work out where they came
from and the fate of their parent objects. If they do not, we will
have to come up with a new class of asteroid."


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