Abstract Physical property data of meteorites and lunar samples include the measurement of density and porosity; magnetic susceptibility; thermal properties including conductivity, heat capacity, and coefficient of thermal expansion; and strength and elastic properties such as mean compressional and shear wave velocities, the bulk, shear, and Young’s moduli, and compressive and tensile strengths. When compared against the same properties measured on samples returned from asteroids and the Moon, these data allow us to account for the effect on the meteorites of their transport to Earth and provide a ground truth for understanding planetary surfaces observed remotely by telescope or spacecraft. The utility of such knowledge ranges from understanding the origin and evolution of those parent bodies, to providing critical data for the design of spacecraft carrying instruments and surface rovers to their surfaces. Finally, physical property measures allow us to characterize the whole sample, which is especially important for heterogeneous samples such as meteorites. From these data, one can arrive at a better understanding of the physical history of these meteorites and their parent bodies.

Abstract We have developed the first database of asteroid regolith properties: fifty asteroids so far, to aid space resource utilisation workers. The physical parameters: grain density, grain size, near surface bulk density and porosity are provided of a collection of the asteroids. The strength of our method is that it combines three types of information: 1) spacecraft-based, in-situ data, 2) laboratory-based meteorite samples, and 3) telescopic, remote data, such as from polarisation-- the joint usage which amplifies the success and the probability of gaining new information. The database is also uniquely robust, due to its large number of crosschecks for the database's regolith parameters. Theoretical studies provide additional crosschecks. See Figure 1. A critical perspective is the assignment of the spatial scales where the bulk density and porosity of an asteroid is related to the average density and porosity of its constituent rocks, which is further distinguished from the average density of the mineral assemblages within the rocks. Introduction In-space resource utilisation will provide an extension of our SpaceShip Earth to include space infrastructures for, and of, our robots that are orbiting the Earth and traveling beyond. With such space resources, we can service, recycle, or build anew, without the limitations of carrying the resources from the Earth. Telecommuncations, Earth observations, planetary research, extraterrestrial life explorations, are just a few examples, which can be implemented cheaper and more efficiently using resources in space. Despite the asteroid mining industry’s shift to smaller companies since 2018, it is no longer a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when’. The endeavour of the in-space utilisation of asteroid resources have several attractive features over their lunar and Martian counterparts, in that their low gravity, large quantities,and tiny sizes lead to different legal regimes for their utilisation and hence are more attractive for private funders to build in space with these resources. The derived products for the asteroid regolith properties are currently following this flowchart:

This paper discusses six astronomers of the Society of Jesus who investi-gated the Coriolis Effect: the deflection of objects moving at Earth's surface that is caused by Earth's rotation. The paper includes introduc-tory material on what the Coriolis Effect is and how it works, espe-cially as regards the atmosphere of Earth and other planets. Four of the six Jesuits-Christoph Scheiner, Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Francesco Maria Grimaldi, and Claude Francois Milliet Dechales-worked in the seventeenth century. They envisioned the effect occurring if Earth rotated; they believed that no such effect actually occurred; and thus they investigated the effect as an argument against Earth's motion. The fifth, Angelo Secchi, experimented with the Foucault pendulum, the first clear demonstration of this effect. The sixth, Johann Georg Hagen, the first Jesuit Director of the Vatican Observatory, worked in the early twentieth century. He developed experimental tests for the effect. This paper provides a synopsis of information that recently has been pub-lished in books and journals related to physics and the history of astron-omy regarding Jesuits and the Coriolis Effect.

We have measured the thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of subsamples from four iron meteorites with nickel concentrations between 5% and 8% (Agoudal, Canyon Diablo, Muonionalusta, and Sikhote-Alin) at temperatures between 5 and 300 K. From these, we have calculated their thermal diffusivity and thermal inertia values across this temperature range. For comparison, we also measured subsamples from two L chondrites (NWA 11038 and NWA 11344) at the same time, using the same methods. The thermal diffusivity results of the irons show a relatively constant value for T > 100 K with a characteristic low-temperature maxima at similar to 5 K for the iron meteorites; by contrast, the diffusivities of the L chondrites fell by a factor of two over this range and reached low-temperature maxima at similar to 20 K. Thermal inertia values show a crossover behavior, with a strong increase in thermal inertia as temperatures drop below 55 K and a less dramatic change at higher temperatures. Our new diffusivity and inertia values cover a wider range of temperatures than previous literature data for iron meteorites. They also provide a useful ground truth in understanding remotely sensed thermal inertias of potentially metal-rich asteroids, including 16 Psyche, target of the NASA Psyche mission.

The physical properties of the stone meteorites provide important clues to understanding the formation and physical evolution of material in the Solar protoplanetary disk as well providing indications of the properties of their asteroidal parent bodies. Knowledge of these properties is essential for modeling a number of Solar System processes, such as bolides in planetary atmospheres, the thermal inertia of atmosphereless solid body surfaces, and the internal physical and thermal evolution of asteroids and rock-rich icy bodies. In addition, insight into the physical properties of the asteroids is important for the design of robotic and crewed reconnaissance, lander, and sample return spacecraft missions to the asteroids. One key property is meteorite porosity, which ranges from 0% to more than 40%, similar to the range of porosities seen in asteroids. Porosity affects many of the other physical properties including thermal conductivity, speed of sound, deformation under stress, strength, and response to impact. As a result of the porosity, the properties of most stone meteorites differ significantly from those of compact terrestrial rocks, whose physical properties have been used in many models of asteroid behavior. A few physical properties, such as grain density, magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity are not functions of porosity. Taken together, the grain density and the magnetic susceptibility can be used to classify unweathered or minimally weathered ordinary chondrites. This provides a rapid screening technique to identify heterogeneous samples, classify new samples, and identify misclassified meteorites or interlopers in strewn fields.

Commission 22 (Meteors, Meteorites and Interplanetary Dust) was established at the first IAU General Assembly held in Rome in 1922, with William Frederick Denning as its first President. Denning was an accountant by profession, but as an amateur astronomer he contributed extensively to meteor science. Commission 22 thus established a pattern that has continued to this day that non-professional astronomers were welcomed and valued and could play a significant role in its affairs. The field of meteors, meteorites and interplanetary dust has played a disproportional role in the astronomical perception of the general public through the majestic displays of our annual meteor showers. Those in the field deployed many techniques uncommon in other fields of astronomy, studying the “vermin of space”, the small solid bodies that pervade interplanetary space and impact Earth's atmosphere, the surface of the Moon, and that of our satellites in orbit. Over time, the field has tackled a wide array of problems, from predicting the encounter with meteoroid streams, to the origin of our meteorites and the nature of the zodiacal cloud. Commission 22 has played an important role in organizing the field through dedicated meetings, a data centre, and working groups that developed professional-amateur relationships and that organized the nomenclature of meteor showers. The contribution of Commission 22 to the field is perhaps most readily seen in the work of the presidents that followed in the footsteps of Denning.

Implications for GRAIL Gravity Modeling of the Orientale Impact Basin Structure Walter S. Kiefer, Robert J. Macke, Daniel T. Britt, Anthony J. Irving, and Guy J. Consolmagno, Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston TX 77058, kiefer@lpi.usra.edu , Vatican Observatory, V-00120 Vatican City State, Dept. of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando FL, Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle WA.

Asteroids (or more properly, minor planets) are small, naturally formed solid bodies that orbit the Sun, are airless, and show no detectable outflow of gas or dust. Although asteroids share many of the characteristics of planets (Sun-centered orbits, seemingly solid bodies), the primary distinction is that they are simply much smaller than the known planets or dwarf planets. Similarly, the distinction between asteroids and comets is also based on their observational qualities rather than any inherent difference in physical properties or composition. This chapter discusses locations, orbits, physical composition, and various other aspects of asteroids.

The lunar magma ocean model is a well-established theory of the early evolution of the Moon. By this model, the Moon was initially largely molten and the anorthositic crust that now covers much of the lunar surface directly crystallized from this enormous magma source. We are undertaking a study of the geochemical characteristics of anorthosites from lunar meteorites to test this model. Rare earth and other element abundances have been measured in situ in relict anorthosite clasts from two feldspathic lunar meteorites: Dhofar 908 and Dhofar 081. The rare earth elements were present in abundances of approximately 0.1 to approximately 10x chondritic (CI) abundance. Every plagioclase exhibited a positive Eu-anomaly, with Eu abundances of up to approximately 20 x CI. Calculations of the melt in equilibrium with anorthite show that it apparently crystallized from a magma that was unfractionated with respect to rare earth elements and ranged in abundance from 8 to 80 x CI. Comparisons of our data with other lunar meteorites and Apollo samples suggest that there is notable heterogeneity in the trace element abundances of lunar anorthosites, suggesting these samples did not all crystallize from a common magma source. Compositional and isotopic data from other authors also suggest that lunar anorthosites are chemically heterogeneous and have a wide range of ages. These observations may support other models of crust formation on the Moon or suggest that there are complexities in the lunar magma ocean scenario to allow for multiple generations of anorthosite formation.

Meteorite heat capacity (specific heat) is an essential parameter in modeling many aspects of the orbital and internal evolution of small solar system bodies, and can be a tool for characterization of the material in a meteorite itself. We have devised a novel method for the measurement of this quantity in whole-rock samples of meteorites, at low temperatures typical of asteroids. We insert the sample in liquid nitrogen, measure the mass of nitrogen boiled off due to the heat within the sample, and calibrating against measurements of pure quartz with a temperature-averaged heat capacity of 494J/kgK we calculate the temperature-average heat capacity of the sample. We show that this method is accurate, rapid, inexpensive, and non-destructive. Preliminary results for chondrites and metal rich meteorites are in excellent agreement with the literature data for meteorites, and hold the promise that such measurements may not only produce values useful to modelers but they also may provide an efficient way to classify whole meteorite samples and characterize subtle differences between meteorites of different compositional classes.

The business meeting of commission 22 was held at the room 403 on 24 th August 2012 (14:00-15:30) in the China National Convention Center in Beijing.

Accurate lunar rock densities are necessary for constructing gravity models of the Moon's crust and lithosphere. Most Apollo‐era density measurements have errors of 2–5% or more and few include porosity measurements. We report new density and porosity measurements using the bead method and helium pycnometry for 6 Apollo samples and 7 lunar meteorites, with typical grain density uncertainties of 10–30 kg m−3 (0.3–0.9%) and porosity uncertainties of 1–3%. Comparison between igneous grain densities and normative mineral densities show that these uncertainties are realistic and that the helium fully penetrates the pore space. Basalt grain densities are a strong function of composition, varying over at least 3270 kg m−3 (high aluminum basalt) to 3460 kg m−3 (high titanium basalt). Feldspathic highland crust has a bulk density of 2200–2600 kg m−3 and porosity of 10–20%. Impact basin ejecta has a bulk density of 2350–2600 kg m−3 and porosity of ∼20%.

We report physical properties (bulk and grain density, magnetic susceptibility, and porosity) measured using nondestructive and noncontaminating methods for 195 stones from 63 carbonaceous chondrites. Grain densities over the whole population average 3.44 g cm-3, ranging from 2.42 g cm-3 (CI1 Orgueil) to 5.66 g cm-3 (CB Bencubbin). Magnetic susceptibilities (in log units of 10-9 m3 kg-1) averaged log ? = 4.22, ranging from 3.23 (CV3 Axtell) to 5.79 (CB Bencubbin). Porosities averaged 17%, ranging from 0 (for a number of meteorites) to 41% (for one stone of the CO Ornans). Notably, we found significant differences in porosity between the oxidized and reduced CV subgroups, with the porosities of CVo averaging approximately 20% and CVr porosities approximately 4%. Overall, porosities of carbonaceous chondrite falls trend with petrographic type, from type 1 (CI) near 35%, type 2 (CM, CR) averaging 23%, type 3 (CV, CO) 21%, to type 4 (CK and some CO) averaging 15%. There is also a significant decrease in porosity between meteorites of shock stage S1 and those of S2, indicative of shock compression.

As part of a large-scale survey of meteorite bulk and grain densities, porosities, and magnetic susceptibilities, we measured these properties for 174 stones from 106 achondritic meteorites. These include four lunar meteorites, 15 stones from 10 shergottites, nakhlites, and chassignites (SNCs), 96 stones from 56 howardites, eucrites, and diogenites (HEDs), 17 stones from nine aubrites, two angrites, and 16 stones from 10 ureilites, four stones of three acapulcoites, as well as four stones of three lodranites, and 15 stones from eight primitive achondrites. Those meteorites derived from basalts and crustal material of differentiated parent bodies have lower densities and magnetic susceptibilities, on an average, than the more primitive achondrites, which have a higher percentage metal. A notable exception is the one chassignite in the study (Chassigny), which has a high grain density of 3.73 +/- 0.04 g cm-3. Ureilites have magnetic susceptibilities consistent with primitive achondrites, but lower grain densities. Porosities do not vary considerably between most of the groups, with most stones 5-14% porous, although on an average, ureilites and brachinites have lower porosities, with most stones less than 7% porous. For primitive achondrites, the higher metal content causes finds to exhibit weathering effects similar to what is observed in ordinary chondrites, with a reduction in grain density, magnetic susceptibility, and porosity as compared with unweathered falls. For lunites, SNCs, and HEDs, no such effect is observed. We also observe that grain density and magnetic susceptibility used in conjunction distinguish shergottites, nakhlites, and chassignites from each other. Shergottites and nakhlites have low grain densities (averaging 3.31 and 3.41 g cm-3, respectively) whereas Chassigny is 3.7 g cm-3. In magnetic susceptibility, shergottities and chassignites are similar (averaging 2.85 and 2.98 in log units of 10-9 m3 kg-1, respectively) with nakhlites averaging higher at 3.42.

Division III's activities focus on a broad range of astronomical research on bodies in the solar system (excluding the Sun), on extrasolar planets, and on the search for life in the Universe.