| Summary: | Physical properties of meteorites and their role in planetology Tomáš Kohout Together with cosmic spherules, interplanetary dust particles and lunar samples returned by Apollo and Luna missions, meteorites are the only source of extraterrestrial material on Earth. They represent samples of various space bodies from asteroids to other planets. Some are remains of parent bodies, which completely disintegrated during giant collisions and no longer exist in the Solar System. The physical properties of meteorites, especially their magnetic susceptibility, bulk and grain density and porosity, have wide applications in meteorite research such as meteorite classification, studies of their origin, level of terrestrial weathering, shock history and in the estimation of the physical appearance oťtheir parent bodies - asteroids. For example, the comparison of a meteorite's density, porosity or magnetic susceptibility to that of a compositionally similar asteroid may reveal its internal structure. For such purposes, an expanded database of meteorite physical properties was compiled with new measurements done in meteorite collections across Europe using a mobile laboratory facility. However, the scale problem may bring discrepancies in the comparison of asteroid and meteorite properties. Due to inhomogenity, the physical...
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