Presentation #305.04 in the session Meteoroids and Meteors.
CM chondrites are meteorites that contain remnants of water-ice interaction that occurred on their asteroid parent bodies. Their genetic relationship to these bygone parent bodies links them to the delivery of extraterrestrial water and life to early Earth. The timeline of both the initiation and duration of the water-rock interaction that occurred within their parent asteroid is an important milestone in the history of Solar System evolution and planetary differentiation, but it is still poorly constrained.
We used a combination of quantitative chemical analysis and Micro-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy as the basis for a numerical model that simulates the reactive transport of primordial fluid through a porous chondritic parent asteroid. The results of the model simulations showed that the most altered CM chondrites were unlikely to have formed inside parent bodies that accreted >2.36 Ma after CAIs. The model also revealed that the duration of the alteration event is sensitive to the mineralogical composition of the parent asteroid before alteration.