To elaborate on Rob's and Larry's comments, a further complication is
that asteroids are placed into classes based on two major criteria:
orbit and composition. The orbital classifications (like Apollo) are
mainly determined by ratios of specific orbital elements. The
compositional classes are primarily determined by spectral
characteristics, and are often the classes of most interest to meteorite
enthusiasts, given the ability to connect many meteorites to specific
asteroid spectral families (e.g. V type asteroids are associated with
HED meteorites). Only in a handful of cases do we have a recovered orbit
for a meteorite fall, allowing for the possibility of recognizing the
parent body's orbital classification as well.
Chris
*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
On 2/26/2013 4:26 AM, lebof...@lpl.arizona.edu wrote:
Hi Graham:
I am far from an asteroid dynamics person, but many (but not all) asteroid
families tend to share compositional similarities and so may very well be
remnants of larger objects that have "recently" been broken up in a
collisional event. The families are usually (but not always) named for
their largest member. This is important in that if members of these
families are in the "right place" in the asteroid belt, their members'
orbits may be perturbed over time into Earth-crossing orbits and then
Earth-impacting orbits, so that they may be the sources of some of the
meteorites we see.
Connecting individual asteroids to classes of meteorites is another story!
Larry
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