[meteorite-list] Lutetia

MexicoDoug mexicodoug at aim.com
Sat Nov 12 12:45:27 EST 2011


Any of this has to be taken in a very speculative sense as there are no 
smoking guns or even luminous trail as was the case of Vesta.

The correction for weathering of the regolith is hokey when applied to 
a case like this, and not one for which we have specimens already to 
compare and make the adjustments already having the answer in the back 
of the book to continuiously peek at.

In any case if the asteroid simply had a coat of paint, there is 
nothing you could tell by looking at it with UV-Vis light, except that 
it is painted - your eye could confirm this fact.  The regolith can be 
corrected when we are talking only a layer one ten-thousandth or so 
thick, in which case you are essentially treating it as a thin section 
using only reflected light.'

It will take a suite of instruments to do some better speculation, 
which include precise measurements of gravitational and magnet 
properties if possible, for example.  But there's simply no substitute 
for a specimen to tweak the science and publish the results fitted to 
the reality instead of having the reality you speculate fitting to the 
results ;-)

Kindest wishes
Doug


-----Original Message-----
From: almitt2 <almitt2 at localnet.com>
To: meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sat, Nov 12, 2011 2:54 am
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Lutetia


Hi Larry and all,

Without knowing what research has been done studying Lutetia, if memory
serves me right, don't they take into account the regolith on the 
surface of
an asteroid and adjust the spectra so it more closely matches "clean"
meteorite specimens that we have? Thought this may have not been done 
yet
and why the discrepancy on the reflective composition on the asteroid is
low.

I figure that Larry would have a better bead on the subject than I but
wanted to add another log on the fire. Best!

--AL Mitterling


Quoting lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu:

> Hi Michael:
>
> The only thing that I would disagree with in the article has to do
with
> where Lutetia formed. It has a fairly low inclination and low
eccentricity
> (for a main belt asteroid), so I doubt there is any way that it
could have
> formed in the inner part of the Solar System and found its way into
the
> main belt. I think it formed there to begin with. Also, I think
that the
> albedo of Lutetia is a little low compared to enstatite chondrites,
so
> this might also be of concern when comparing Lutetia to enstatites.
>
> Larry
>
>> Cool, now we know where all of our enstantite meteorites likely
come from.
>>
>> Michael Farmer


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