The Asteroid Belt Connection
Since the second half of the 20th century scientists have been able to determine the exact
orbits of some meteorites, mostly ordinary chondrites, that were photographed by several cameras
during their fall, such as the witnessed meteorite falls of Pribram (Czech Republic), Innisfree
(Canada), Lost City (USA), and - more recently - the fall of Neuschwanstein (Germany). The orbits
of two other witnessed ordinary chondrite falls, Farmington (USA), and Dhajala (India), have been
calculated from independent observations of the falls by eyewitnesses.
Each of these reconstructed or calculated meteorite orbits has its aphelion, i.e., its most distant
point from the Sun, in the asteroid belt - a region located between the orbits of the planets Mars
and Jupiter, populated by thousands of small bodies up to the size of Texas - suggesting that at
least these witnessed meteorite falls, and the ordinary chondrites are pieces of main belt
asteroids.
This view is consistent with what we know about asteroids. Most of them seem to represent
undifferentiated bodies that never accreted into a larger planet because of the perturbing
effects of Jupiter's massive gravitational field. Hence, most asteroids should be composed of
primordial matter that remained more or less unchanged for the last 4.5 billion years - facts
that hold true for ordinary chondrites and most other meteorite groups and clans. Today, it is
widely accepted that most meteorites have their origin in the asteroid belt, the members of each
group representing a common asteroidal parent body.
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The Asteroid Belt & the Orbits of
Meteorites
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