Ba. Cohen et Rf. Coker, Modeling of liquid water on CM meteorite parent bodies and implications for amino acid racemization, ICARUS, 145(2), 2000, pp. 369-381
We have constructed an asteroid model with the intent of tracking the radia
l and temporal dependence of temperature and composition throughout a 100-k
m-diameter CM-type parent body, with emphasis on constraining the temperatu
re and duration of a liquid water phase, We produce a nonuniform distributi
on where liquid water persists longest and is hottest in the deepest zones
and the regolith never sees conditions appropriate to aqueous alteration. W
e apply the model predictions of the liquid water characteristics to the ev
olution of amino acids. In some regions of the parent body, very little cha
nge occurs in the amino acids, but for the majority of the asteroid, comple
te racemization or even destruction occurs. We attempt to match our thermal
model results with CM meteorite observations, but thus far, our model does
not produce scenarios that are fully consistent with these observations. (
C) 2000 Academic Press.