Athor asteroid family as the source of the EL enstatite meteorites

Description

The identification of meteorite parent bodies provides the context for understanding planetesimal formation and evolution as well as the key Solar System events they have witnessed. However, identifying such links has proven challenging and some appear ambiguous. Here, we identify that the family of asteroid fragments whose largest member is (161) Athor is the unique source of the rare EL enstatite chondrite meteorites, the closest meteorites to Earth in terms of their isotopic ratios. The Athor family was created by the collisional fragmentation of a parent body 3 Gyr ago in the inner main belt. We calculate that the diameter of the Athor family progenitor was 64 km in diameter, much smaller than the putative size of the EL original planetesimal. Therefore, we deduce that the EL planetesimal that accreted in the terrestrial planet region underwent a first catastrophic collision in that region, and one of its fragments suffered a more recent catastrophic collision in the main belt, generating the current source of the EL meteorites.

Abstract

International audience

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