Asteroids and meteorites

Abstract

The hypothesis that most meteorites are asteroid fragments generated by comparatively recent collisions in the asteroid belt runs up against spectrophotometric data indicating that asteroids with the composition of the most abundant meteorite class are either rare or absent in the asteroid belt. An understanding of the origin and evolution of the asteroid belt is essential to an adequate interpretation of meteoritic data; conversely, the detailed early asteroidal history preserved in the meteorites provides evidence otherwise unavailable for the earliest history of any other planetary bodies.