Hydrated Minerals on Asteroids: The Astronomical Record

Abstract

Knowledge of the hydrated mineral inventory on the asteroids is important for deducing the origin of Earth's water, interpreting the meteorite record, and unraveling the processes occurring during the earliest times in solar system history. Reflectance spectroscopy shows absorption features in both the 0.6-0.8 and 2.5-3.5 micrometers regions, which are diagnostic of or associated with hydrated minerals. Observations in those regions show that hydrated minerals are common in the mid-asteroid belt, and can be found in unexpected spectral groupings, as well. Asteroid groups formerly associated with mineralogies assumed to have high temperature formation, such as M- and E-class asteroids, have been observed to have hydration features in their reflectance spectra. Some asteroids have apparently been heated to several hundred degrees Celsius, enough to destroy some fraction of their phyllosilicates. Others have rotational variation suggesting that heating was uneven. We summarize this work, and present the astronomical evidence for water- and hydroxyl-bearing minerals on asteroids.