Staying timely on Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta for 15 Oct. (vol. 383):
Mittlefehldt, D. W. Geochemistry of pallasite olivine and the origin of pallasites
p. 92 .2024.08.010
Kruttasch, P. M. Anand, A. Warren, P. H. et al. 53Mn-53Cr chronometry of ureilites: Implications for th… p. 108 .2024.08.012
Straying a bit from asteroids, but… See that short, to-the-point paper title? David W. Mittlefehldt is not playing. Mittlefehldt is a name in meteoritics, and over his career he’s gained the pull to do a review article like this. Pallasites are meteorites with combined rock/metal; our best estimate is they represent the mantle/core boundary of a planetesimal that differentiated (formed a core, mantle, etc.). Kinda boggling that we have, in hand, samples from the core/mantle interface of a long-dead planet or mini-planet. And Mittlefehldt apparently has the geochemical/cosmochemical data to hypothesize that planet or mini-planet, and its history.
In that same vein, ureilites are, also, remnant samples of some heat-altered planet or mini-planet, long gone. They represent some cooled magma that had boiled away lots of light elements, yet still retained graphite, diamond (nanodiamonds, not gems), silicon carbide, etc. In other words, this was like no planet we know. What’s the story? Chromium atoms form stable minerals, and are used as tracers for meteorite history (and therefore, early Solar System history). Manganese is also seen, in fewer papers. Given what we knew previously, Kruttasch et al. attempt to deduce what the ureilite parent body was like, how it grew and evolved, and what happened to it.
We study asteroids indirectly here, sandwiching their parents, and their children. It helps that we get the children for “free.”