Abstract
Ceres is the largest object in the main belt and it is also the most water-rich body in the inner solar system besides the Earth. The discoveries made by the Dawn Mission revealed that the composition of Ceres includes organic material, with a component of carbon globally present and also a high quantity of localized aliphatic organics in specific areas. The inferred mineralogy of Ceres indicates the long-term activity of a large body of liquid water that produced the alteration minerals discovered on its surface, including ammonia-bearing minerals. To explain the presence of ammonium in the phyllosilicates, Ceres must have accreted organic matter, ammonia, water and carbon present in the protoplanetary formation region. It is conceivable that Ceres may have also processed and transformed its own original organic matter that could have been modified by the pervasive hydrothermal alteration. The coexistence of phyllosilicates, magnetite, carbonates, salts, organics and a high carbon content point to rock–water alteration playing an important role in promoting widespread carbon occurrence.
Highlights
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The data acquired by the Dawn mission revealed that Ceres’ composition includes organic material
There is the evidence of a large amount of localized aliphatic organics in specific areas and the presence of carbon has been inferred to be present globally
Summary
The dwarf planet Ceres stands out among the asteroids because it has physical and chemical characteristics that are peculiar with respect to those of the typical main belt bodies. It must be recalled that carbonaceous-chondrites (CC) are, on average, composed by mixtures of unaltered and altered phases, including phyllosilicates and carbon, the latest in the forms of carbonates and organic matter The carbonates include both calcite (CaCO3) and dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2), while the organic component is mostly in the form of insoluble kerogen-like macromolecules, combined with less aliphatic compounds [26]. As a consequence, including carbonaceous-chondrites as the main component of the Ceres-like mixture implies an even more abundant quantity of carbon and organics as describ4eodf 5by [17]. Some analyses (i.e., isotopic and pyrolytic) indicate that at least a quantity of insoluble material was possibly modified during parent-body processes This alteration caused the graphitization and chemical oxidation, with the likely release of soluble organic compounds. In the case of Ceres, the retrieved quantity of carbonate is larger while the organics are less abundant with respect to CC, supporting the idea that Ceres underwent an advanced alteration
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