[meteorite-list] Mercury Fragments on earth (not)

[Philip R. Burns]

At 11:07 AM 8/4/2011, Edwin Thompson wrote:

>A very compelling poster was presented at a Met Soc meeting back in 
>the 90's showing a very plausible scenario that might have produced 
>meteorites on Earth having come from the surface of Mercury.

Brett Gladman and Jaime Coffey from the University of British 
Columbia discussed the possibility of meteorites originating from 
Mercury in a 2009 paper from Meteoritics and Planetary Science.  A 
prepublication copy is available online:

         http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0801/0801.4038.pdf

They concluded that there should be a number of meteorites of 
Mercurian origin already here -- around 1/3 to 1/2 the number  which 
originated from Mars.

The Messenger spacecraft should provide better information about the 
possible composition of Mercurian meteorites.

David Weir offers a useful summary of the subject of Mercurian meteorites at:

http://www.meteoritestudies.com/protected_MERCURY.HTM


-- Philip R. "Pib" Burns
    pib at pibburns.com
    http://www.pibburns.com/