Nature, formation, and distribution of carbonates on Ceres

Creators: Carrozzo, Filippo Giacomo; De Sanctis, Maria Cristina; Raponi, Andrea; Ammannito, Eleonora; Castillo-Rogez, Julie; Ehlmann, Bethany L.; Marchi, Simone; Stein, Nathaniel; Ciarniello, Mauro; Tosi, Federico; Capaccioni, Fabrizio; Capria, Maria Teresa; Fonte, Sergio; Formisano, Michelangelo; Frigeri, Alessandro; Giardino, Marco; Longobardo, Andrea; Magni, Gianfranco; Palomba, Ernesto; Zambon, Francesca; Raymond, Carol A.; Russell, Christopher T.

Abstract

Different carbonates have been detected on Ceres, and their abundance and spatial distribution have been mapped using a visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR), the Dawn imaging spectrometer. Carbonates are abundant and ubiquitous across the surface, but variations in the strength and position of infrared spectral absorptions indicate variations in the composition and amount of these minerals. Mg-Ca carbonates are detected all over the surface, but localized areas show Na carbonates, such as natrite (Na_2CO_3) and hydrated Na carbonates (for example, Na_2CO_3·H_2O). Their geological settings and accessory NH_4-bearing phases suggest the upwelling, excavation, and exposure of salts formed from Na-CO_3-NH_4-Cl brine solutions at multiple locations across the planet. The presence of the hydrated carbonates indicates that their formation/exposure on Ceres' surface is geologically recent and dehydration to the anhydrous form (Na_2CO_3) is ongoing, implying a still-evolving body.

Additional Information

© 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). Submitted 17 May 2017; Accepted 23 January 2018; Published 14 March 2018. We thank the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and NASA for supporting this work. The VIR instrument was funded and coordinated by the ASI and built by Selex ES, with the scientific leadership of the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, and it is operated by the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology (Rome, Italy). A portion of this work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (USA) under contract to NASA. Author contributions: F.G.C. wrote the manuscript, calibrated the data, and contributed to data analysis and interpretation. M.C.D.S. wrote the manuscript, coordinated the contributions and interpretation, and performed the analysis of the data. A.R. performed the spectral fits. E.A. calibrated the data and contributed to the data analysis. J.C.-R., B.L.E., S.M., and N.S. contributed to the spectral interpretation of the data and in writing the manuscript. M.C. provided optical constants from reflectance spectra. All authors helped with manuscript preparation. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors. Dawn data are archived in NASA's Planetary Data System. VIR spectral data may be obtained at http://sbn.psi.edu/pds/resource/dwncvir.html.

Attached Files

Published - e1701645.full.pdf

Supplemental Material - 1701645_SM.pdf

Files

e1701645.full.pdf

Files (3.8 MB)

Name	Size	Download all
e1701645.full.pdf md5:2f17f221c2030898e038cd657d8af710	1.7 MB	Preview Download
1701645_SM.pdf md5:af1f31cd1a6b2aa39ca2f98c8b5a05c0	2.1 MB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes