[meteorite-list] Minor Planet families

[Chris Peterson]

To elaborate on Rob's and Larry's comments, a further complication is 
that asteroids are placed into classes based on two major criteria: 
orbit and composition. The orbital classifications (like Apollo) are 
mainly determined by ratios of specific orbital elements. The 
compositional classes are primarily determined by spectral 
characteristics, and are often the classes of most interest to meteorite 
enthusiasts, given the ability to connect many meteorites to specific 
asteroid spectral families (e.g. V type asteroids are associated with 
HED meteorites). Only in a handful of cases do we have a recovered orbit 
for a meteorite fall, allowing for the possibility of recognizing the 
parent body's orbital classification as well.

Chris

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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 2/26/2013 4:26 AM, lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu wrote:
> Hi Graham:
>
> I am far from an asteroid dynamics person, but many (but not all) asteroid
> families tend to share compositional similarities and so may very well be
> remnants of larger objects that have "recently" been broken up in a
> collisional event. The families are usually (but not always) named for
> their largest member. This is important in that if members of these
> families are in the "right place" in the asteroid belt, their members'
> orbits may be perturbed over time into Earth-crossing orbits and then
> Earth-impacting orbits, so that they may be the sources of some of the
> meteorites we see.
>
> Connecting individual asteroids to classes of meteorites is another story!
>
> Larry