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| Vigarano meteorite | |
|---|---|
| Name | Vigarano |
| Type | Carbonaceous chondrite |
| Class | CV3 (reduced) |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Vigarano Mainarda, Emilia-Romagna |
| Fall date | 1910 (observed fall) |
| Total known weight | ~1.5 kg |
Vigarano meteorite is a carbonaceous chondrite that fell near Vigarano Mainarda in Italy in 1910 and serves as the type specimen for the CV group of chondrites. The specimen has been central to studies connecting primitive solar system materials to planetary processes, influencing research across institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.
The fall at Vigarano Mainarda was witnessed in 1910 and the stone was recovered by local residents and later curated by collectors and museums including the Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano and the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Ferrara. The name follows the standardized meteorite nomenclature used by the Meteoritical Society and was adopted in catalogues from the British Museum (Natural History) and the American Museum of Natural History. Early descriptive work was published in European journals and featured in monographs by researchers affiliated with the University of Padua, the University of Bologna, and the University of Florence.
Vigarano defines the CV (Vigarano-type) subgroup within carbonaceous chondrites and is classified as a CV3 reduced (CV3R) meteorite under schemes developed by the Meteoritical Society and researchers at the NASA Johnson Space Center and the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Petrographic classification was refined using techniques from the Smithsonian Institution and laboratories at the University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology. Thin section studies at facilities such as the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, the ETH Zurich, and the University of Münster revealed a matrix dominated by olivine and low-Fe pyroxene with varying degrees of thermal metamorphism noted by investigators at the University of Bern and Harvard University.
Chondrules in the specimen show a range of textures—porphyritic, barred olivine, and cryptocrystalline—and compositions dominated by olivine and pyroxene with frequent melilite and plagioclase phases identified by teams at the University of Tokyo, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley. Refractory inclusions (CAIs) include grossite, hibonite, and spinel assemblages characterized in microanalyses performed at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of New Mexico. Investigations by the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural History Museum, London employed electron microprobe and secondary ion mass spectrometry from facilities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to quantify refractory element distributions.
Isotopic studies of oxygen, chromium, titanium, and magnesium performed by teams at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Manchester placed the specimen within the non-terrestrial oxygen isotope reservoirs similar to other carbonaceous groups such as CM chondrite, CO chondrite, and CV chondrite members. Short-lived radionuclide evidence from aluminium-26 and manganese-53 systematics was analyzed by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Tokyo, and the California Institute of Technology to constrain formation ages relative to calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and the University of Arizona. Trace element geochemistry, including rare earth element patterns measured at the Geological Survey of Canada and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, indicates fractionation trends comparable to refractory-rich, volatile-depleted meteorites curated at the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
Models linking the specimen to an oxidized to reduced parent body were developed collaboratively by scientists at the University of Münster, the University of Grenoble-Alpes, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Thermal metamorphism and brecciation signatures interpreted via petrography, spectroscopy, and numerical modeling were produced in conjunction with teams at the NASA Johnson Space Center, the European Space Agency, and the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris. Dynamical scenarios connecting the parent asteroid to regions of the early main asteroid belt and potential links to collisional families investigated by researchers at the Southwest Research Institute and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa suggest a complex history involving accretion, impact heating, and aqueous alteration comparable to histories proposed for bodies studied by missions like Hayabusa and OSIRIS-REx.
Vigarano has been pivotal in establishing the CV group and informing paradigms about solar nebula processes, chondrule formation, and refractory inclusion evolution through collaborative studies published by institutions including the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Max Planck Society. The specimen features in comparative analyses with meteorites such as Allende, Murchison meteorite, and Orgueil and has been referenced in meteoritical reviews from the Meteoritical Bulletin and symposia convened by the Division for Planetary Sciences and the European Planetary Science Congress. Ongoing research leverages facilities at the Argonne National Laboratory, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to refine chronologies, isotopic anomalies, and presolar grain inventories that connect the sample to broader questions addressed by missions from NASA and the European Space Agency.
Category:Meteorites found in Italy Category:Carbonaceous chondrites