. 24/7 Space News .
IRON AND ICE
What Looks Like Ceres on Earth
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 30, 2018

Left: Hlioarfjall dome, Iceland. Right: Ahuna Mons on Ceres. Credit: Hansueli Krapf/Creative Commons/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

With its dark, heavily cratered surface interrupted by tantalizing bright spots, Ceres may not remind you of our home planet Earth at first glance. The dwarf planet, which orbits the Sun in the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is also far smaller than Earth (in both mass and diameter). With its frigid temperature and lack of atmosphere, we're pretty sure Ceres can't support life as we know it.

But these two bodies, Ceres and Earth, formed from similar materials in our solar system. And, after combing through thousands of images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which has been orbiting Ceres since 2015, scientists have spotted many features on Ceres that look like formations they've seen on Earth.

By looking at similar features on different bodies - what scientists call "analogs" - we can learn more about the origins and evolution of these bodies over time. Check out these prominent features of Ceres, and see if you recognize any of their earthly cousins!

On Ceres: Occator Crater
As Dawn approached Ceres in early 2015, two mysterious gleaming beacons stood out in images: the "bright spots" of Occator Crater. When the spacecraft spiraled into orbits closer to Ceres, higher-resolution images revealed that there are not just two spots, but many. The center of Occator contains a bright, 2,000-foot-high (500-meter-high) dome called the Cerealia Dome, which is covered with bright material. The bright material on top of the dome is called the Cerealia Facula. A collection of smaller bright regions called Vinalia Faculae is clustered on the eastern side of the crater floor.

Thanks to Dawn's observations, scientists think the bright material is made of sodium carbonate and mineral salts. Moreover, Dawn scientists think the Cerealia Dome formed from briny liquid or mushy ice rising from below the surface - what we call "hydrothermal" activity - because it involves heat (thermal) and water (hydro).

Scientists have two theories about how this hydrothermal activity happened: either the heat from the impact that formed the crater caused briny liquid or mushy ice to push up on the surface - so much that it popped out - or alternatively, the heat from the impact could have enhanced activity related to pre-existing liquid reservoirs just below the surface.

On Earth: Pingos
When groundwater on Earth freezes, it can push up against the overlying soil, creating a dome-like structure called a "pingo." These structures appear near the Arctic regions of Earth, including Canada's Pingo National Landmark. "The dimensions, shape and 'fractured' top of a pingo resemble the Cerealia Dome, which may have formed from alternating cycles of ice 'punching' up and effusing onto the surface of Ceres," said Lynnae Quick, planetary scientist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

On Earth: Volcanic Domes
Panum Crater at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California has rounded edges and fractured summits that remind scientists of the Cerealia Dome, too. Both the Panum dome and the Cerealia dome sit inside pits. Lassen Peak in California, a lava dome, also has a similar shape, as does the dome in the Mount Saint Helens caldera in the state of Washington.

On Earth: Searles Lake
Like Occator Crater, Searles Lake in California's Mojave Desert is famous for bright evaporite minerals - that is, minerals that remain long after the evaporation of saltwater. Once a lake fed by water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, today Searles is a dried-out lakebed with white mineral deposits. Mining operations collect minerals rich in sodium and potassium for industrial use. These minerals are mostly found in subsurface brines that are pumped to the surface.

On Ceres: Ahuna Mons
Ahuna Mons sticks out on Ceres as a tall, lonely mountain with bright material dusting its slopes. Similar to the material found in Occator, the bright coating is made of sodium carbonate. The leading hypothesis is that Ahuna Mons is a cryovolcano - a very cold volcano that has erupted with salty water, mud and volatile materials instead of molten rock. Ahuna Mons rises an average of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the surrounding surface, about the same as the height of the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington State. Ahuna Mons doesn't appear to be associated with any impacts, suggesting that Ceres must have had cryovolcanic activity in the recent past.

On Earth: Hlidarfjall dome, Iceland
While nothing in the solar system is exactly like Ahuna Mons, the Hlidarfjall dome in Iceland has a similar shape. Both have loose, fine-grained material, and are similar in their proportion of heights and widths. But these mountains are very different in composition. The Icelandic dome formed by silicate volcanic material, whereas Ahuna Mons formed primarily from water and salt, with a minor contribution from silicate minerals. "Despite the chemical differences, however, the materials on Earth and Ceres behave similarly when they protrude out of the crust to form volcanoes," said Ottaviano Ruesch, research scientist at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands.

On Earth: Chaiten Dome, Chile
Another volcanic structure reminiscent of Ahuna Mons is Chaiten Dome in Chile, located within a caldera, a cauldron-like volcanic feature. Beyond Earth, the Compton-Belkovich volcanic complex on the Moon contains a dome that seems to have formed by silicate materials erupting. "This means that silicic dome formation is a process not limited to Earth," Ruesch said.

On Ceres: Samhain Catenae Pit Chains
Ceres is full of craters large and small, but it also has chains of small bowl-shaped or elliptical pits that did not result from impacts. Pit chains, such as Samhain Catenae, are caused by fractures or faults in the subsurface, which formed up to a billion years ago. When the fractures or faults leave behind empty space under the surface, loose material falls in from above - forming the pits at the surface.

On Earth: Iceland Pit Chains
Northern Iceland has a system of pit chains related to faults and fractures. Scientists believe these pit chains formed because of seismic events in the 1970s. A 2011 study led by David Ferrill of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio finds that the pits resulted from poorly consolidated material falling down into subterranean cavities, which were produced by faults and fractures. "It's possible that stresses derived from material upwelling from deeper within Ceres resulted in parts of the crust being pulled apart, which may have formed the Samhain Catenae," said Jennifer Scully, Dawn scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Scientists also have mapped similar pit chains on Mars and other solar system bodies.

On Ceres: Haulani Crater
Haulani Crater, 21 miles (34 kilometers) in diameter, with sharp rims and bright material, is one of the youngest craters on Ceres. Some flow features are associated with a mountainous ridge in the center, while other flow features run outward from the crater's rim toward the surrounding area. Pitted terrain on the crater's floor and northern rim probably formed when an impacting body caused water under the surface - which had been locked in Ceres' crust - to vaporize. That's why pitted terrain is additional evidence for water ice as a key component of the crust.

On Earth: Ries Crater, Germany
Ries Crater in southern Germany was formed from an impacting meteorite about 15 million years ago. It is an example of a "rampart crater," a crater whose material flowed due to the presence of volatile materials, such as water, when the meteorite hit. Although Ceres does not have craters that are exactly "rampart" in nature, some of the craters on Ceres such as Haulani do have flow features in their ejecta blankets - the layers of rock that were overturned and deposited around the crater as during the impact event. "Ries also has clusters of pipe-like structures in the bedrock that are the basis for our understanding of the formation of pitted materials on Mars, Vesta, and Ceres," said Hanna Sizemore, research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona.

On Ceres: Landslides
Dawn has revealed many landslides on Ceres, which may have been shaped by the presence of water ice. This image shows three different kinds of landslides on Ceres. At left, Ghanan Crater hosts an example of a Type I landslide, which is relatively round and large and has thick deposits, or "toes," at its end. Type II and Type III features are shown in the middle and right of this image respectively. Scientists think Type I landslides form in areas where the ground is rich in ice, which may occur near Ceres' poles. Type II landslides are often thinner and longer than Type 1. Type III landslides form in ice-rich ejected material from impacts.

On Earth:
Landslides can occur anywhere on Earth where the ground along a slope becomes unstable, such as last year's landslide in northern California. A hillside called Mud Creek collapsed in May 2017 after the area had received substantial rainfall, increasing the amount of groundwater in the area. The way the rock and dirt slid down over Highway 1 into the ocean resembles the way the mixture of ice and rock skidded down Ghanan Crater on Ceres. In some cases, water or ice in the ground can increase the likeliness of landslide occurrence.

A highly detailed imaged and caption version of this story is avaiable at JPL here


Related Links
Dawn at NASA
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


IRON AND ICE
China Focus: Capture an asteroid, bring it back to Earth?
Beijing (XNA) Jul 24, 2018
Next time when your kids ask you to bring them a star from the sky, you don't have to shrug and walk away. Tell them to wait, instead. A group of Chinese scientists are mulling a bold idea to capture a small near-Earth asteroid, which might be a potential threat, and bring it back to Earth to exploit its resources. "Sounds like science-fiction, but I believe it can be realized," said Li Mingtao, a researcher at the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Li ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

IRON AND ICE
Sky's no limit: Japan firm to fly wedding plaques into space

NASA to Name Astronauts Assigned to First Boeing, SpaceX Flights

Boeing's quest to take astronauts to space station hits snag

NASA Marshall Awards 43 New Small Innovation and Technology Research Proposals

IRON AND ICE
SpaceX launches, lands rocket in challenging conditions

Russia's Khrunichev Center Develops Concept of Reusable Rocket

Latest Blue Origin Launch Tests Technologies of Interest to Space Exploration

Roscosmos' Research Center's Staff Suspected of Leaking Data Abroad

IRON AND ICE
Is Mars' Soil Too Dry to Sustain Life?

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Discover Why Mars Is So Dusty

NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft Finds That "Stolen" Electrons Enable Unusual Aurora on Mars

Liquid water lake discovered on Mars

IRON AND ICE
China developing in-orbit satellite transport vehicle

PRSS-1 Satellite in Good Condition

China readying for space station era: Yang Liwei

China launches new space science program

IRON AND ICE
Rockwell Collins and Iridium Partner to Deliver Next-Generation Aviation Services

27 Satellites in 3 Years: Indian Private Sector Shifts Focus to Space Projects

Aerospace Workforce Training A National Mandate for 2018

Head of Roscosmos Research Center Paison Hands in Application for Dismissal

IRON AND ICE
Researchers unravel more mysteries of metallic hydrogen

NASA Interns Develop and Release Navigation Software Simulating Star Tracker Navigation

Millennium Space Systems ALTAIR Pathfinder Satellite Surpasses 10,000 Hours in Orbit

Manipulating single atoms with an electron beam

IRON AND ICE
WSU researcher sees possibility of moon life

How Can You Tell If That ET Story Is Real

X-ray Data May Be First Evidence of a Star Devouring a Planet

Glowing bacteria on deep-sea fish shed light on evolution, 'third type' of symbiosis

IRON AND ICE
'Ribbon' wraps up mystery of Jupiter's magnetic equator

Radiation Maps of Jupiter's Moon Europa: Key to Future Missions

The True Colors of Pluto and Charon

Dozen new Jupiter moons declared









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.