Remnants of a lost Planetesimal: Searching for the Angrite parent body

• DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2024.116429
• Publication Date: 2024-12-10T00:06:47Z
• Authors: B.G. Rider-Stokes; S.L. Jackson; T.H. Burbine; L.F. White; R.C. Greenwood; E.M. MacLennan; M. Anand; A. Yamaguchi; M.M. Grady

Peer reviewed<br/>It is hypothesized that the Solar System was once populated by Moon to Mars-sized planetary embryos, however, resulting debris from their disruptions is not easily discernible in the modern-day Solar System. Angrites are among the oldest differentiated materials in our Solar System, recording prolonged magmatism, and their parent body is expected to have been Moon to Mars-sized. Even so, no parent body in the modern-day Solar System has been identified. Our UV–Vis-NIR spectra of ten angrites, compared with 712 asteroids, reveal multiple candidates with spectral similarities through curve matching and band-structure analysis. Asteroid (246) Asporina provides the best analog for the angrite meteorites, potentially representing a fragment of a long-lost Moon to Mars-sized body that once resided in the inner Solar System, which was subsequently incorporated into the growing terrestrial planets.<br/>