Mineralogical evaluation of reflectance spectra of carbonaceous chondrites with the aim of characterization of aqueous alteration of the C-complex asteroids

Abstract

We measured reflectance spectra of 17 CM carbonaceous chondrites under vacuum using a FT-IR spectrometer and investigated relationships between the degree of aqueous alteration and properties of 3µm and 0.7µm absorption bands that are related to hydrous minerals. In this study, we show that it is possible to characterize to some extent the degrees of aqueous alteration of C-complex asteroids using reflectance spectroscopy.