The asteroid impact near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on 15 February 2013 was the largest airburst on Earth since the 1908 Tunguska event, causing a natural disaster in an area with a population exceeding one million. Because it occurred in an era with modern consumer electronics, field sensors, and laboratory techniques, unprecedented measurements were made of the impact event and the meteoroid that caused it. Here, we document the account of what happened, as understood now, using comprehensive data obtained from astronomy, planetary science, geophysics, meteorology, meteoritics, and cosmochemistry and from social science surveys. A good understanding of the Chelyabinsk incident provides an opportunity to calibrate the event, with implications for the study of near-Earth objects and developing hazard mitigation strategies for planetary protection.

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Chelyabinsk airburst, damage assessment, meteorite recovery, and characterization

Non-destructive, non-contaminating, and relatively simple procedures can be used to measure the bulk density, grain density, and porosity of meteorites. Most stony meteorites show a relatively narrow range of densities, but differences within this range can be useful indicators of the abundance and oxidation state of iron and the presence or absence of volatiles. Typically, ordinary chondrites have a porosity of just under 10%, while most carbonaceous chondrites (with notable exceptions) are more than 20% porous. Such measurements provide important clues to the nature of the physical processes that formed and evolved both the meteorites themselves and their parent bodies. When compared with the densities of small solar system bodies, one can deduce the nature of asteroid and comet interiors, which in turn reflect the accretional and collisional environment of the early solar system.

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The significance of meteorite density and porosity

Spectral reflectance properties of carbonaceous chondrites: 1. CI chondrites

Doppler weather radar imaging enabled the rapid recovery of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite after a rare 4-kiloton of TNT–equivalent asteroid impact over the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northern California. The recovered meteorites survived a record high-speed entry of 28.6 kilometers per second from an orbit close to that of Jupiter-family comets (Tisserand’s parameter = 2.8 ± 0.3). Sutter’s Mill is a regolith breccia composed of CM (Mighei)–type carbonaceous chondrite and highly reduced xenolithic materials. It exhibits considerable diversity of mineralogy, petrography, and isotope and organic chemistry, resulting from a complex formation history of the parent body surface. That diversity is quickly masked by alteration once in the terrestrial environment but will need to be considered when samples returned by missions to C-class asteroids are interpreted.

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Radar-Enabled Recovery of the Sutter’s Mill Meteorite, a Carbonaceous Chondrite Regolith Breccia

– We report physical properties (bulk and grain density, magnetic susceptibility, and porosity) measured using nondestructive and noncontaminating methods for 195 stones from 63 carbonaceous chondrites. Grain densities over the whole population average 3.44 g cm−3, ranging from 2.42 g cm−3 (CI1 Orgueil) to 5.66 g cm−3 (CB Bencubbin). Magnetic susceptibilities (in log units of 10−9 m3 kg−1) averaged log χ = 4.22, ranging from 3.23 (CV3 Axtell) to 5.79 (CB Bencubbin). Porosities averaged 17%, ranging from 0 (for a number of meteorites) to 41% (for one stone of the CO Ornans). Notably, we found significant differences in porosity between the oxidized and reduced CV subgroups, with the porosities of CVo averaging approximately 20% and CVr porosities approximately 4%. Overall, porosities of carbonaceous chondrite falls trend with petrographic type, from type 1 (CI) near 35%, type 2 (CM, CR) averaging 23%, type 3 (CV, CO) 21%, to type 4 (CK and some CO) averaging 15%. There is also a significant decrease in porosity between meteorites of shock stage S1 and those of S2, indicative of shock compression.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2011.01298.x

Density, porosity, and magnetic susceptibility of carbonaceous chondrites

A database of magnetic susceptibility (χ) measurements on different non-ordinary chondrites (C, E, R, and ungrouped) populations is presented and compared to our previous similar work on ordinary chondrites. It provides an exhaustive study of the amount of iron-nickel magnetic phases (essentially metal and magnetite) in these meteorites. In contrast with all the other classes, CM and CV show a wide range of magnetic mineral content, with a two orders of magnitude variation of ?. Whether this is due to primary parent body differences, metamorphism or alteration, remains unclear. C34 and C2 yield similar χ values to the ones shown by CK and CM, respectively. By order of increasing χ, the classes with well-grouped χ are: R << CO < CK ≈ CI < Kak < CR < E ≈ CH < CB. Based on magnetism, EH and EL classes have indistinguishable metal content. Outliers that we suggest may need to have their classifications reconsidered are Acfer 202 (CO), Elephant Moraine (EET) 96026 (C45), Meteorite Hills (MET) 01149, and Northwest Africa (NWA) 521 (CK), Asuka (A)-88198, LaPaz Icefield (LAP) 031156, and Sahara 98248 (R). ? values can also be used to define affinities of ungrouped chondrites, and propose pairing, particularly in the case of CM and CV meteorites.

/pdf/magnetic-classification-of-stony-meteorites-2-non-ordinary-1bp916w57e.pdf

Magnetic classification of stony meteorites: 2. Non-ordinary chondrites

Here we characterize the magnetic properties of the Chelyabinsk chondrite (LL5, S4, W0) and constrain the composition, concentration, grain size distribution, and mineral fabric of the meteorite's magnetic mineral assemblage. Data were collected from 10 to 1073 K and include measurements of low-field magnetic susceptibility (v0), the anisotropy of v0, hysteresis loops, first-order reversal curves, M€ spectroscopy, and X-ray microtomography. The REM and REM 0 paleointensity protocols suggest that the only magnetizations recorded by the chondrite are components of the Earth's magnetic field acquired during entry into our planet's atmosphere. The Chelyabinsk chondrite consists of light and dark lithologies. Fragments of the light lithology show logv0 = 4.57 � 0.09 (s.d.) (n = 135), while the dark lithology shows 4.65 � 0.09 (n = 39) (where v0 is in 10 � 9 m 3 kg � 1 ). Thus, Chelyabinsk is three times more magnetic than the average LL5 fall, but is similar to a subgroup of metal-rich LL5 chondrites (Paragould, Aldsworth, Bawku, Richmond) and L/LL5 chondrites (Glanerbrug, Knyahinya). The meteorite's room- temperature magnetization is dominated by multidomain FeNi alloys taenite and kamacite (no tetrataenite is present). However, below approximately 75 K remanence is dominated by chromite. The metal contents of the light and dark lithologies are 3.7 and 4.1 wt%, respectively, and are based on values of saturation magnetization.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/maps.12307

Anna Ya Skripnik

Papers

Magnetic classification of stony meteorites: 2. Non-ordinary chondrites

Magnetic properties of the LL5 ordinary chondrite Chelyabinsk (fall of February 15, 2013)