Metal-rich meteorites from the aubrite parent body

Three metal-rich meteorites - Mt. Egerton, Horse Creek, and LEW 88055 - were studied and it is suggested that they formed in the aubrite parent body. LEW 85369 and 88631 may also have a common origin, but these rocks have not yet been studied in detail. This body was probably heated to about 1600 C by a very strong heat source. While molten, metal agglomerated into sizeable nodules which never segregated efficiently to form a core, but were trapped in the silicate mantle. Different clasts and lithologies in aubrites solidified and cooled under local equilibrium conditions of oxygen fugacity, and with different thermal histories. Impacts mixed clasts from throughout the parent body, creating the typical aubrite breccias.