TY - JOUR
T1 - Detection of local H2O exposed at the surface of Ceres
AU - Combe, Jean Philippe
AU - McCord, Thomas B.
AU - Tosi, Federico
AU - Ammannito, Eleonora
AU - Carrozzo, Filippo Giacomo
AU - De Sanctis, Maria Cristina
AU - Raponi, Andrea
AU - Byrne, Shane
AU - Landis, Margaret E.
AU - Hughson, Kynan H.G.
AU - Raymond, Carol A.
AU - Russell, Christopher T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this research was provided under the NASA Dawn mission through subcontract 2090-S-MB516 from the University of California, Los Angeles. The VIR instrument and VIR team are funded by ASI (Italian Space Agency) and INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica). The involvement of S.B. and M.E.L. was made possible by award NNX15AI29G of the Dawn Guest Investigator Program. Dawn data for Ceres are archived in NASA's Planetary Data System Small Bodies Node (http://sbn.pds.nasa.gov/data-sb/target-asteroids. shtml-Ceres). We thank J. Castillo-Rogez, B. Ehlmann, H. Y. McSween, C. M. Pieters, P. Schenk, S. Schröder, and S. Uy for valuable discussions and critical reading of the manuscript.
PY - 2016/9/2
Y1 - 2016/9/2
N2 - The surface of dwarf planet Ceres contains hydroxyl-rich materials.Theories predict a water ice-rich mantle, and water vapor emissions have been observed, yet no water (H2O) has been previously identified. The Visible and InfraRed (VIR) mapping spectrometer onboard the Dawn spacecraft has now detected water absorption features within a low-illumination, highly reflective zone in Oxo, a 10-kilometer, geologically fresh crater, on five occasions over a period of 1 month. Candidate materials are H2O ice and mineral hydrates. Exposed H2O ice would become optically undetectable within tens of years under current Ceres temperatures; consequently, only a relatively recent exposure or formation of H2O would explain Dawn's findings. Some mineral hydrates are stable on geological time scales, but their formation would imply extended contact with ice or liquid H2O.
AB - The surface of dwarf planet Ceres contains hydroxyl-rich materials.Theories predict a water ice-rich mantle, and water vapor emissions have been observed, yet no water (H2O) has been previously identified. The Visible and InfraRed (VIR) mapping spectrometer onboard the Dawn spacecraft has now detected water absorption features within a low-illumination, highly reflective zone in Oxo, a 10-kilometer, geologically fresh crater, on five occasions over a period of 1 month. Candidate materials are H2O ice and mineral hydrates. Exposed H2O ice would become optically undetectable within tens of years under current Ceres temperatures; consequently, only a relatively recent exposure or formation of H2O would explain Dawn's findings. Some mineral hydrates are stable on geological time scales, but their formation would imply extended contact with ice or liquid H2O.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.aaf3010
DO - 10.1126/science.aaf3010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84984911542
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 353
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6303
M1 - aaf3010
ER -