Visible-Infrared spectroscopy of ungrouped and rare meteorites brings further constraints on meteorite-asteroid connections

International audience ; The composition of asteroids gives crucial insights into the formation and evolution of the Solar System. Although spectral surveys and spacecraft missions provide information on small bodies, many important analyses can only be performed in terrestrial laboratories. Meteorites represent our main source of samples of extraterrestrial material. Determining the source asteroids of these meteorites is crucial to interpret their analyses in the broader context of the inner Solar System. For now, the total number of parent bodies represented in our meteorites collection is estimated to about 150 parent bodies, of which 50 parent bodies represented by the poorly studied ungrouped chondrites. Linking ungrouped meteorites to their parent bodies is thus crucial to significantly increase our knowledge of asteroids. To this end, the petrography of 25 ungrouped chondrites and rare meteorite groups was studied, allowing grouping into 6 petrographic groups based on texture, mineralogy, and aqueous and thermal parent body processing. Then, we acquired visible-near-infrared (VIS-NIR) reflectance spectroscopy data of those 25 meteorites, in order to compare them to ground-based telescopic observations of asteroids. The reflectance spectra of meteorites were obtained on powdered samples, as usually done for such studies, but also on raw samples and polished sections. With asteroids surfaces being more complex than fine-grained regolith (e.g., asteroid (101955) Bennu), in particular near-Earth asteroids, the use of raw samples is a necessary addition for investigating parent bodies. Our results showed that sample preparation influences the shape of the spectra, and thus asteroid spectral matching, especially for carbonaceous chondrites. Overall, the petrographic groups defined initially coincide with reflectance spectral groups, with only few exceptions. The meteorite spectra were then compared with reference end-member spectra of asteroids taxonomy. We matched the 25 studied meteorites to asteroids types, ...