Dawn Mission Research Articles

Porosity-filling Metamorphic Brines Explain Ceres’s Low Mantle Density

Abstract Recent work has sought to constrain the composition and makeup of the dwarf planet Ceres’s mantle, which has a relatively low density, between 2400 and 2800 kg m−3, as inferred by observations by the Dawn mission. Explanations for this low density have ranged from a high fraction of porosity-filled brines to a high fraction of organic matter. We present a series of numerical thermodynamic models that yield the mineralogy and fluid composition in the mantle as a function of Ceres’s thermal evolution. We find that the resulting phase assemblage could have changed drastically since the formation of Ceres, as volatile-bearing minerals such as serpentine and carbonates would partially destabilize and release their volatiles as temperatures in the mantle reach their maximum about 3 Gyr after Ceres’s formation. These volatiles consist mainly of aqueous fluids containing Na+ and HS− throughout the metamorphic evolution of Ceres and, in addition, high concentrations of CO2 at high temperatures relatively recently. The predicted present-day phase assemblage in the mantle, consisting of partially devolatilized minerals and 13–30 vol% fluid-filled porosity, is consistent with the mantle densities inferred from Dawn. The metamorphic fluids generated in Ceres’s mantle may have replenished an ocean at the base of the crust and may even be the source of the Na2CO3 and NaHCO3 mineral deposits observed at Ceres’s surface.

Edward R. D. Scott (1947–2021): A tribute to an exceptional scientist and wonderful man

Edward R. D. Scott (1947–2021): A tribute to an exceptional scientist and wonderful man

Iodine thruster makes space debut

A spacecraft thruster that relies on iodine has been successfully tested in an orbiting satellite ( Nature 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04015-y ). The propulsion system is a form of ion drive, which electrically accelerates a jet of ions to generate thrust. Until now, ion drives—used in space probes such as NASA’s Dawn mission to the asteroid belt—have typically relied on xenon. Xenon’s heavy atoms deliver a lot of thrust, but the element is rare and expensive. It also requires high-pressure storage, which makes it difficult to downsize xenon thrusters for miniature satellites called CubeSats , says Dmytro Rafalskyi, cofounder of ThrustMe , the French company behind the iodine drive. In contrast, iodine is cheap, is abundant, and can be stored as a solid, enabling much more compact thrusters at less than half the cost of an equivalent xenon system. But iodine is also corrosive, so ThrustMe’s system stashes it in a

Exploring Ceres’s Unusual Regolith Porosity and Its Implications for Volatile Retention

Abstract Asteroid Ceres, the only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system, shows unique surface mineralogy and geomorphology as observed by the Dawn mission. Of particular interest is understanding the role that upper regolith porosity plays in retaining volatiles and shaping Ceres’ surface. Unfortunately, Ceres’ near-surface porosity remains largely uncharacterized, compromising the ability to quantify volatile occurrence and identify the mechanisms for volatile retention at shallow depths, a topic of ongoing debate. Herein, we estimate Ceres’ shallow-subsurface porosity by reinterpreting existing S- and X-band Earth-based radar observations combined with dielectric laboratory measurements of analog materials that have been recently suggested by spectral observations from the Dawn VIR spectrometer and in the far-ultraviolet from the Hubble telescope. Contrary to previous assumptions, our results suggest that Ceres’ surface is more porous than the lunar regolith, with a bulk porosity ranging from ∼53% to 72% or even higher in the top meter of the regolith, as opposed to ∼39% to 50% for both bodies. The above suggests that Ceres’ regolith is on average 15% more porous than the Moon, hence explaining its higher potential for volatile retention. We propose that lofting and gradual redeposition of fine particles by avalanches, continuous micrometeorite bombardment, and localized volatile outgassing are possible mechanisms for generating a globally high-porosity regolith. In addition to Ceres’ proximity to the snowline of the early solar system, such a highly porous regolith may explain its efficiency at retaining volatiles at shallow depths into the present, as revealed by Dawn’s GRaND observations.

NIR-MID Reflectance and Emissivity Study at Different Temperatures of Sodium Carbonate Minerals: Spectra Characterization and Implication for Remote Sensing Identification

Recent satellite observations and the deconvolution of remote sensing data have shown the existence of various carbonate minerals in different solar system bodies. Emissivity, from 403 to 803 K, and reflectance spectra at 300 and 193 K of selected carbonates minerals with different ratios of Na:Ca and water amounts were respectively collected at 3–20 μm and at 1–16 μm. All reflectance spectra show absorption features in the 1.9–2.5 and 3.4–4.0 μm areas due to overtone and a combination of CO32− and fundamental vibrational models at ≈9.09, 11.35, 7.06, and 14.7 μm. The increase of the Na:Ca ratio in anhydrous samples produces a shift of the absorption features in the 3.4–4.0 μm area toward shorter wavelengths, and the peak at 3.9 μm doubles in the presence of a CO32− oxygen group shared with two cations in minerals having more complex structures. The comparison of the bands at ≈669 and ≈794 cm−1 in the emissivity spectra collected at high temperatures indicates that around 600 K, phase transitions occurred in natrite and thermonatrite. The reflectance spectra measured at 193 K reveal a fine structure compared to spectra collected at room temperature. The comparison of laboratory results with the spectrum of Ceres’s brightest crater Occator from the Dawn mission, taken as a case study, showed how the anhydrous samples, shortite and nyerereite, studied in this work can also be hypothesized for Ceres’s surface beyond that already suggested (trona, natrite, thermonatrite).

Organic Matter and Associated Minerals on the Dwarf Planet Ceres

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.

Laboratory Investigations Coupled to VIR/Dawn Observations to Quantify the Large Concentrations of Organic Matter on Ceres

Organic matter directly observed at the surface of an inner planetary body is quite infrequent due to the usual low abundance of such matter and the limitation of the infrared technique. Fortuitously, the Dawn mission has revealed, thanks to the Visible and InfraRed mapping spectrometer (VIR), large areas rich in organic matter at the surface of Ceres, near Ernutet crater. The origin of the organic matter and its abundance in association with minerals, as indicated by the low altitude VIR data, remains unclear, but multiple lines of evidence support an endogenous origin. Here, we report an experimental investigation to determine the abundance of the aliphatic carbon signature observed on Ceres. We produced relevant analogues containing ammoniated-phyllosilicates, carbonates, aliphatic carbons (coals), and magnetite or amorphous carbon as darkening agents, and measured their reflectance by infrared spectroscopy. Measurements of these organic-rich analogues were directly compared to the VIR spectra taken from different locations around Ernutet crater. We found that the absolute reflectance of our analogues is at least two orders of magnitude higher than Ceres, but the depths of absorption bands match nicely the ones of the organic-rich Ceres spectra. The choices of the different components are discussed in comparison with VIR data. Relative abundances of the components are extrapolated from the spectra and mixture composition, considering that the differences in reflectance level is mainly due to optical effects. Absorption bands of Ceres’ organic-rich spectra are best reproduced by around 20 wt.% of carbon (a third being aliphatic carbons), in association with around 20 wt.% of carbonates, 15 wt.% of ammoniated-phyllosilicate, 20 wt.% of Mg-phyllosilicates, and 25 wt.% of darkening agent. Results also highlight the pertinence to use laboratory analogues in addition to models for planetary surface characterization. Such large quantities of organic materials near Ernutet crater, in addition to the amorphous carbon suspected on a global scale, requires a concentration mechanism whose nature is still unknown but that could potentially be relevant to other large volatile-rich bodies.

Thermal inertia of Occator's faculae on Ceres

Thermal inertia is a key information to quantify the physical status of a planetary surface; it can be retrieved by comparison between theoretical and observed temperature diurnal profiles. We have calculated the surface temperature for a set of locations on Ceres' surface with a thermophysical model that provides temperature as a function of thermal conductivity and roughness, and we have determined the values of those parameters for which the best fit with the observed data is obtained. The observed temperatures have been retrieved form spatially-resolved data from the Dawn mission. In our previous work [Rognini et al., 2019], we have found that the average thermal inertia for the overall surface of Ceres is low (from 1 to 15 to 60 ​J ​m−2 ​s−½ K−1), as expected according to the general trend observed in the Solar System for atmosphere-less bodies, while the thermal inertia of the very bright faculae found in the floor of the Occator crater could not be well defined. Using more recently acquired VIR high resolution data we find that the central part of the Cerealia facula displays a thermal anomaly (~10K above the average) compatible with a higher thermal inertia with respect to the surrounding regions, while the Vinalia facula does not display any consequently could have a grain size comparable with the Ceres’ surface average.

Age relationships of large-scale troughs and impact basins on Vesta

The Dawn mission at Asteroid 4 Vesta revealed two sets of enormous troughs with the Divalia Fossae spanning around two-thirds of the equator and the Saturnalia Fossae located in the northern hemisphere. Previous studies showed that the Divalia and Saturnalia Fossae are concentric around the Rheasilvia and Veneneia impact basins, respectively, and hence the troughs are widely considered to be genetically linked to the impact events forming the basins. In the existing literature, the troughs are assumed to be formed directly by, and simultaneously with the basin-forming impacts; however, the temporal relationships of the troughs and how they compare to the impact basins have never been documented. We count crater populations superposed on the Divalia and Saturnalia Fossae to establish their crater frequency distributions and compare that with the previously published data of the Rheasilvia and Veneneia basins, respectively. The comparisons allow us to determine the relative temporal relationships of the troughs and impact basins. Our results show that the Divalia Fossae and Rheasilvia basin overlap in their crater frequencies, indicating they can be considered coeval within the bounds of the uncertainties. A restrictive age relationship of the Saturnalia Fossae and Veneneia basin emplacement cannot be determined from the crater counts on Vesta since the preserved surface geology of the eastern Veneneia basin may not provide any meaningful information on the emplacement age of the impact structure. However, the Rheasilvia basin superposes the Veneneia basin, and thus the Veneneia basin-forming impact must predate that of Rheasilvia. The crater frequencies of the Saturnalia Fossae and Rheasilvia basin indicate that the Saturnalia Fossae are older than or coeval with the Rheasilvia basin emplacement. Taken together, our derived relative age relationships do not contradict but also do not yield tight constraints on the hypothesis that the basin-forming impacts on Vesta directly triggered the formation of the troughs.

Erosion of Volatiles by Micrometeoroid Bombardment on Ceres and Comparison to the Moon and Mercury

Abstract Ceres, the largest reservoir of water in the main belt, was recently visited by the Dawn spacecraft, which revealed several areas bearing H2O-ice features. Independent telescopic observations showed a water exosphere of currently unknown origin. We explore the effects of meteoroid impacts on Ceres by considering the topography obtained from the Dawn mission using a widely used micrometeoroid model and ray-tracing techniques. Meteoroid populations with 0.01–2 mm diameters are considered. We analyze the short-term effects Ceres experiences during its current orbit, as well as long-term effects over the entire precession cycle. We find that the entire surface is subject to meteoroid bombardment, leaving no areas in permanent shadow with respect to meteoroid influx. The equatorial parts of Ceres produce 80% more ejecta than the polar regions due to the large impact velocity of long-period comets. Mass flux, energy flux, and ejecta production vary seasonally by a factor of 3–7 due to the inclined eccentric orbit. Compared to Mercury and the Moon, Ceres experiences significantly smaller effects of micrometeoroid bombardment, with a total mass flux of 4.5 ± 1.2 × 10−17 kg m−2 s−1. On average, Mercury is subjected to a 50× larger mass flux and generates 700× more ejecta than Ceres, while the lunar mass flux is 10× larger and the ejecta generation is 30× larger than on Ceres. For these reasons, we find that meteoroid impacts are an unlikely candidate for the production of a water exosphere or significant excavation of surface features. The surface turnover rate from the micrometeoroid populations considered is estimated to be 1.25 Myr on Ceres.

High‐Temperature VIS‐IR Spectroscopy of NH4‐Phyllosilicates

AbstractAmmonium phyllosilicates have been identified on the dwarf planet Ceres, thanks to infrared telescopic and orbital data from the Dawn mission, by means of the 3.06 μm spectral feature. Nevertheless, it is not known which ammonium‐bearing phyllosilicate species are present, nor the thermal processing they underwent throughout Ceres history. Identifying the NH4+‐hosting mineral species is important for deciphering Ceres’ surface mineralogy, which provides a link to its interior and putative different evolutionary pathways. Ammoniated species can have formed in the presence of water/ammonia‐rich fluids in different conditions in the interior of the planet; in case of an exogenous outer Solar System origin, they can have undergone heating at depth. In this work, we study the visible‐infrared spectra of several NH4‐treated/untreated phyllosilicates in the range 0.35–5 μm, acquired in vacuum and at temperatures between 298 and 723 K. Previously NH4‐phyllosilicates have been mostly studied at ambient condition, preventing the characterization of the NH4+ band at 3.06 μm, due to overlapping bands of water. With this new set of measurements, we investigate how the NH4‐phyllosilicates spectra are modified when the mineral’s water is lost, and which temperature is the limit for the releasing of NH4+. We present the first high‐temperatures/high vacuum 3‐μm reflectance spectra of ammonium phyllosilicates. Our measurements indicate that Mg‐phyllosilicates are the best candidates for the ammonium‐bearing species. Moreover, the almost complete disappearing of NH4+ absorption feature at ∼3.06 μm for ammoniated phyllosilicates heated at the highest temperatures indicates that such species on Ceres could not have experienced temperatures higher than 623 K.

Mass and Density of Asteroid (16) Psyche

Abstract We apply our novel Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)–based algorithm for asteroid mass estimation to asteroid (16) Psyche, the target of NASA’s eponymous Psyche mission, based on close encounters with 10 different asteroids, and obtain a mass of (1.117 ± 0.039) × 10−11 M ⊙. We ensure that our method works as expected by applying it to asteroids (1) Ceres and (4) Vesta, and find that the results are in agreement with the very accurate mass estimates for these bodies obtained by the Dawn mission. We then combine our mass estimate for Psyche with the most recent volume estimate to compute the corresponding bulk density as (3.88 ± 0.25) g cm−3. The estimated bulk density rules out the possibility of Psyche being an exposed, solid iron core of a protoplanet, but is fully consistent with the recent hypothesis that ferrovolcanism would have occurred on Psyche.

Dwarf planet (1) Ceres surface bluing due to high porosity resulting from sublimation

The Dawn mission found that the dominant colour variation on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is a change of the visible spectral slope, where fresh impact craters are surrounded by blue (negative spectral-sloped) ejecta. The origin of this colour variation is still a mystery. Here we investigate a scenario in which an impact mixes the phyllosilicates present on the surface of Ceres with the water ice just below. In our experiment, Ceres analogue material is suspended in liquid water to create intimately mixed ice particles, which are sublimated under conditions approximating those on Ceres. The sublimation residue has a highly porous, foam-like structure made of phyllosilicates that scattered light in similar blue fashion as the Ceres surface. Our experiment provides a mechanism for the blue colour of fresh craters that can naturally emerge from the Ceres environment.

Correction of the VIR-visible dataset from the Dawn mission at Vesta.

This work describes the correction method applied to the dataset acquired at the asteroid (4) Vesta by the visible channel of the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer. The rising detector temperature during data acquisitions in the visible wavelengths leads to a spectral slope increase over the whole spectral range. This limits the accuracy of the studies of the Vesta surface in this wavelength range. Here, we detail an empirical method to correct for the visible detector temperature dependency while taking into account the specificity of the Vesta dataset.

Post-impact cryo-hydrologic formation of small mounds and hills in Ceres’s Occator crater

The intimate mixture of ice and silicate within the uppermost few kilometres of Ceres influences its geology and the evolution of its subsurface. Both ground ice and cryovolcanic processes have been hypothesized to form geologic terrains on Ceres, including within Occator crater, where they have been suggested to influence the post-impact surface evolution. Both types of processes involve the presence and expression of volatiles and brines, such that distinguishing between them could be difficult. Here, we use images and topography data from the NASA Dawn mission to investigate the morphology, age and distribution of mounds and hills within Occator crater, and infer their origin. The shapes and relative ages of many of these features suggest that they formed as impact-induced water-rich flows that covered the crater floor refroze in a manner similar to the formation of periglacial ice-cored mounds on Earth called pingos. We suggest that impacts on Ceres produced hydrologic conditions for surface changes in the absence of cryovolcanic processes. Our findings imply that cryo-hydrologic processes extend beyond Earth and Mars, and have been active on Ceres in the geologically recent past. Mounds within Ceres’s Occator crater may have formed by freezing of water-rich impact-induced melt, by a process analogous to that of pingo formation on Earth, according to an analysis of data from NASA’s Dawn mission.

Recent cryovolcanic activity at Occator crater on Ceres

NASA’s Dawn mission revealed a partially differentiated Ceres that has experienced cryovolcanic activity throughout its history up to the recent past. The Occator impact crater, which formed ~22 Myr ago, displays bright deposits (faculae) across its floor whose origins are still under debate: two competing hypotheses involve eruption of brines from the crust–mantle transition boundary (remnants of an ancient ocean) or alternatively from a shallow impact melt chamber. Here we report new constraints on the history of Occator that help in testing the hypotheses of its formation. We used high-resolution images of the Dawn Framing Camera obtained close to the end of the mission. We found a long-lasting and recent period of cryovolcanic activity, which started ≤9 Myr ago and lasted for several million years. Several resurfacing events, affecting the faculae and some (dark) solidified impact melt units, are shown to have occurred millions of years after crater formation and the dissipation of the impact-generated heat. These findings are indicative of a deep-seated brine source. Extensive volatile-driven emplacement of bright material occurred in the central floor, causing its subsidence due to mass loss at depth. Finally, a thick (extrusive) dome of bright material was raised in the central depression. The derived chronostratigraphy of Occator is consistent with a recently geologically active world, where salts play a major role in preserving liquid in a heat-starved body. High-spatial-resolution images of the bright points at Occator crater on Ceres, taken during the second extended Dawn mission, allowed reconstruction of the chronology of their formation. The area experienced extensive cryovolcanism less than nine million years ago that lasted several million years, indicating recent geological activity.

Lessons from the Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta

The Dawn mission orbited and explored Ceres and Vesta, the two largest objects in the main asteroid belt. One of the key enabling technologies was solar electric propulsion. After more than 11 years in flight, Dawn completed operations in October 2018. I describe some lessons from the perspective of chief engineer and mission manager/mission director.

Relict Ocean Worlds: Ceres

The aim of this chapter is to describe available evidence for the existence of relict ocean worlds. The focus is on Ceres as a clear example of such a world as indicated by the results from the Dawn mission. The sections of this chapter will also reflect the differences and commonalities with other recognized ocean worlds. We focus on Ceres as an example of relict ocean world and the implications it holds for the broader solar system. The presence of a large amount of water in the outer Solar System, the presence of low eutectic salts, and the similar pressure and temperature regimes at depth in icy moons and other dwarf planets suggest that many of these large icy worlds harbor or harbored deep oceans. Ceres is an example of relict Ocean world.

Mineralogy and petrology of dark clasts in the Allan Hills 76005 polymict eucrite pairing group

AbstractThe Allan Hills 76005 polymict eucrite pairing group consists of 15 paired masses recovered during six different field seasons in the Transantarctic Mountains. Although this group has been well studied in general, most of the meteorites contain a significant portion of dark clasts that have not been well characterized. The Dawn mission to Vesta discovered dark materials that provide insight into its evolution. The ALH dark clasts are thus of great interest to understanding the evolution of Vesta. Here, 45 different dark clasts from 15 different thin sections from the pairing group are characterized in detail to better understand their nature and origin. Five different textural types of dark clasts are recognized among this group—skeletal, vitrophyric, pilotaxitic, fan spherulitic, and troilite‐silica‐plagioclase‐rich clasts with aphyric or blobby textures. Mineralogy of the clasts is dominated by plagioclase and pyroxene, with minor troilite, silica, ilmenite, chromite, and rare Fe‐Ni metal. All of the textures can be produced by rapid cooling rates on the order of 60–2500°C h−1. Bulk compositions of the clasts are demonstrably eucritic, and not chondritic, howarditic, or diogenitic. The combination of mineralogy, composition, and textures strongly suggests that the dark clasts are eucritic impact melts. Several craters on Vesta have associated orange deposits that have been proposed as impact melt breccias. The ALH pairing group may thus represent material that originated near Oppia or Octavia craters.

High Thermal Inertia Zones on Ceres From Dawn Data

AbstractThermal inertia is a key information to quantify the physical status of a planetary surface. We derive the thermal inertia of the surface of Ceres using spatially resolved data from the Dawn mission. For each location, this quantity can be constrained by comparing theoretical and observed diurnal temperature profiles from retrieved temperatures. We calculated Ceres's surface theoretical temperatures with a thermophysical model that provides temperature as a function of thermal conductivity and roughness, and we determined the values of those parameters for which the best fit with the observed data is obtained. Our results suggest that the area of crater Haulani displays thermal inertia values (up to 130–140 J·m−2·s−½·K−1) substantially higher than the very low to low values (from 1–15 to 50–60 J·m−2·s−½·K−1) derived for the overall surface of Ceres. The results are more ambiguous for the bright faculae located in the floor of crater Occator.