Spectroscopic investigations of meteorites

- We measured reflectance spectra (450-2250 nm) of 18 different meteorites.
- The chondrite and achondrite spectra could be separated with principal components.
- Single-scattering albedos were resolved for chondritic single particles.
- Realistic scattering phase functions were used in the radiative-transfer model.

We have measured reflectance spectra (450-2250 nm) of centimeter-size pieces of 18 different meteorites. The measurements were carried out with the Finnish Geodetic Institute Field Goniospectrometer. Principal Component Analysis performed on the spectra tends to separate the undifferentiated ordinary chondrites and differentiated achondrites. Furthermore, we determined single-scattering albedos for meteoritic single particles with a phenomenological radiative-transfer model using realistic scattering phase functions. Single-scattering albedos for the analyzed ordinary chondrites range from 0.65 to 0.9.