Organic Material on Ceres: Insights from Visible and Infrared Space ObservationsOPEN ACCESS 

· by · in , ,

Andrea Raponi, Maria Cristina De Sanctis, Filippo Giacomo Carrozzo, Mauro Ciarniello, Batiste Rousseau, Marco Ferrari , Eleonora Ammannito, Simone De Angelis, Vassilissa Vinogradoff, Julie C. Castillo-Rogez, Federico Tosi, Alessandro Frigeri, Michelangelo Formisano, Francesca Zambon, Carol A. Raymond and Christopher T. Russell

Life 2021, 11(1), 9

LINK (OPEN ACCESS)
PDF (download)

“The NASA/Dawn mission has acquired unprecedented measurements of the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, the composition of which is a mixture of ultra-carbonaceous material, phyllosilicates, carbonates, organics, Fe-oxides, and volatiles as determined by remote sensing instruments including the VIR imaging spectrometer. We performed a refined analysis merging visible and infrared observations of Ceres’ surface for the first time. The overall shape of the combined spectrum suggests another type of silicate not previously considered, and we confirmed a large abundance of carbon material. More importantly, by analyzing the local spectra of the organic-rich region of the Ernutet crater, we identified a reddening in the visible range, strongly correlated to the aliphatic signature at 3.4 µm. Similar reddening was found in the bright material making up Cerealia Facula in the Occator crater. This implies that organic material might be present in the source of the faculae, where brines and organics are mixed in an environment that may be favorable for prebiotic chemistry.”

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Localized aliphatic organic material on the surface of Ceres
  2. Laboratory Investigations Coupled to VIR/Dawn Observations to Quantify the Large Concentrations of Organic Matter on CeresOPEN ACCESS 
  3. Bulk composition and thermal evolution constrain the formation of organics in Ceres’ subsurface ocean via geochemical modeling
  4. The composition and structure of Ceres’ interior
  5. Detection of local H2O exposed at the surface of Ceres
  6. Brine residues and organics in the Urvara basin on CeresOPEN ACCESS 
  7. The Radiation Environment of Ceres and Implications for Surface Sampling
  8. The surface of (1) Ceres in visible light as seen by Dawn/VIROPEN ACCESS 
  9. A probabilistic approach to determination of Ceres’ average surface composition from Dawn VIR and GRaND dataOPEN ACCESS 
  10. Post-impact cryo-hydrologic formation of small mounds and hills in Ceres’s Occator crater
Tags: , , ,