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The Fall, Recovery, Orbit, and Composition of the Tagish Lake Meteorite: A New Type of Carbonaceous Chondrite
Peter G. Brown,1Alan R. Hildebrand,3Michael E. Zolensky,4Monica Grady,5Robert N. Clayton,6Toshiko K. Mayeda,6Edward Tagliaferri,7Richard Spalding,8Neil D. MacRae,9Eric L. Hoffman,10David W. Mittlefehldt,11John F. Wacker,12J. Andrew Bird,3Margaret D. Campbell,1Robert Carpenter,9Heather Gingerich,9Michael Glatiotis,3Erika Greiner,9Michael J. Mazur,3Phil JA. McCausland,9Howard Plotkin,2Tina Rubak Mazur3
The preatmospheric mass of the Tagish Lake meteoroid was about
200,000 kilograms. Its calculated orbit indicates affinityto the
Apollo asteroids with a semimajor axis in the middle ofthe asteroid
belt, consistent with a linkage to low-albedo C,D, and P type
asteroids. The mineralogy, oxygen isotope, and bulkchemical
composition of recovered samples of the Tagish Lake meteoriteare
intermediate between CM and CI meteorites. These data suggestthat the
Tagish Lake meteorite may be one of the most primitivesolar system
materials yet studied.
1 Department of Physics and Astronomy,
2 Department of Philosophy, University of Western
Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada.
3 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University
of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
4 SN2,
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
5 Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
6 Enrico Fermi
Institute, Department of Chemistry, and Department of Geophysical
Sciences, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL
60637, USA.
7 ET Space Systems, 5990 Worth Way,
Camarillo, CA 93012, USA.
8 Sandia National
Laboratories, Organization 5909, Mail Stop 0978, Post Office Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA.
9 Department of Earth
Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5B7,
Canada.
10 Activation Laboratories Ltd., 1336 Sandhill Drive, Ancaster, Ontario L9G 4V5, Canada.
11 Lockheed Martin SO, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
12 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Post
Office Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, USA.
