Asteroid size distribution: Implications for the origin of stony-iron and iron meteorites
Abstract
The diameter-frequency distribution of large asteroids is analyzed, based on polarimetric and radiometric albedo data. The population of carbonaceous objects shows a high degree of fragmentation. But a class of apparently stony-iron asteroids shows a relative excess frequency between diameters of 100 to 200 km. It is proposed that the latter objects are predominantly metallic cores of a group of chemically differentiated planetesimals all of which (except Vesta) have suffered catastrophic collisions. Collision frequencies in the asteroid belt may have been much greater than previously supposed.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- December 1974
- DOI:
- 10.1029/GL001i008p00341
- Bibcode:
- 1974GeoRL...1..341C
- Keywords:
-
- Asteroids;
- Iron Meteorites;
- Planetary Evolution;
- Size (Dimensions);
- Stony Meteorites;
- Stony-Iron Meteorites;
- Albedo;
- Carbonaceous Meteorites;
- Frequency Distribution;
- Meteoritic Composition;
- Planetary Composition;
- Polarimetry;
- Radiometers;
- Planetology: Gross properties of planets;
- Planetology: Meteoritics