The first identification of a mainbelt asteroid source for a meteorite Class E-type Apollo asteroid (3103) 1982BB: A link between the Hungaria asteroid zone and the Aubrite meteorites

One of the major goals of asteroid investigators has been to determine the source bodies of the meteorites, and, thus, to provide the needed spatial context. However, despite careful investigation of many of these asteroids, no specific mainbelt asteroidal parent bodies for particular meteorites have yet been identified. Results are reported that represent the first direct link of a set of meteorites (the aubrites or enstatite achondrites) back to a particular source region in the asteroid belt (the Hungaria zone of the innermost belt located at a heliocentric distance of about 1.9 AU (1.9 times the Earth's distance from the Sun)). Since most asteroids in the belt are still located near their original heliocentric formation distances, this link allows the composition and temperature of the solar nebula to be determined at a specific distance from the Sun during the time of planetesimal formation. Orbital considerations suggest that 3103 could be derived from the Hungaria zone. However, the spectral gype of 3103 makes such a source probable. The Hungaria zone is the only region of the asteroid belt where E-type asteroids are common. E-type objects constitute about 55 percent of the classified Hungaria population. Although a more detailed investigation of the dynamical evolution of this object is needed, it appears highly probable that 3103 1982BB was derived from the Hungaria region of the innermost asteroid belt, that it is a fragment of the collisional breakup of an E-object near 1.9 AU, and escaped the mainbelt via the nu sup 16 resonance.