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Published Online August 23, 2001
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1063734

Reports

Submitted on June 22, 2001
Accepted on August 13, 2001

The Tagish Lake Meteorite: A Possible Sample from a D-Type Asteroid

Takahiro Hiroi 1*, Michael E. Zolensky 2, Carle M. Pieters 1

1 Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
2 Earth Science and Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: takahiro_hiroi{at}brown.edu.

A new type of carbonaceous chondrite, the Tagish Lake meteorite, exhibits a reflectance spectrum similar spectra observed of the D-type asteroids. The D-type asteroids are relatively abundant in the outer solar system beyond the main asteroid belt and have been inferred to be more primitive than any known meteorite. Until the Tagish Lake fall, these asteroids had no analog in the meteorite collections. The Tagish Lake meteorite is a carbon rich (4 to 5 wt.%), aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrite, and contains high concentrations of presolar grains and carbonate minerals, which is consistent with the expectation that the D-type asteroids were originally made of primitive materials and did not experience any extensive heating.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)