Reflection spectra of shocked ordinary chondrites and their relationship to asteroids

Spectral reflectance measurements are conducted of a number of mineralogically well-characterized, shock-blackened ordinary chondrites exhibiting four types of shock-generated black features: (1) opaque melt shock veins, (2) melt pockets and irregular interconnected melt veins, (3) melt dikes, and (4) black chondrites. While their spectra resemble those of C asteroids, these materials are found in impact crater basements and floors rather than surfaces and are of low abundances; they therefore cannot be responsible for large-scale spectral alterations of the parent asteroids of ordinary chondrites, and offer no support for the supposition that ordinary chondrite asteroids are hidden among C asteroids.