But recent studies shed new light on Ceres and challenge our previous understanding of its composition and history. The findings suggest that Ceres may contain significant amounts of water ice beneath its surface, painting a picture of an ancient ocean world.

The history of asteroid Ceres is being rewritten

Traditionally, scientists believed that Ceres was relatively dry and estimated its ice content to be less than 30%. This assumption arose from the observation of numerous impact craters, which indicated that there was no significant ice on the surface. Dr. is an associate professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue. Mike Sorey and Ian Pamerleau, a graduate student at Purdue University, and Jennifer Scully of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are the ideologues of these new ideas. The icy nature of Ceres.

“People thought that if Ceres was very icy, the craters would deform rapidly over time, like flowing glaciers or flowing sticky honey on Earth,” Dr Sori explained.

“But we have shown with our simulations that under conditions on Ceres, ice can be much stronger than previously thought when mixed with some hard rock.”

This discovery flips the script on theories that have been around for decades. The research team used advanced computer modeling to model how Ceres craters evolved over billions of years.

Their work suggests that Ceres’ surface consists mostly of “dirty ice crust” mixed with ice and rocky material. This mixture allows the ice to remain stable for long periods of time, preserving the crater structures that once led scientists to believe Ceres was mostly dry.

Surprising data from NASA’s Dawn mission

NASA’s Dawn mission, launched on September 27, 2007, played a crucial role in this discovery. Dawn, the first and only spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies (Vesta and Ceres), provided invaluable data from 2015 to 2018.

“We used many observations made with the dawn data as motivation to look for an ice-rich crust that resists the loosening of the crater on Ceres,” Pamerleau said.

Spectrographic data from the spacecraft showed the presence of ice beneath the surface of Ceres, and gravitational measurements confirmed the idea that the ice had an impure composition.

The team’s modeling took into account the new way ice can flow under even small amounts of rocky material. This discovery reconciles the existence of numerous craters with high ice content and suggests that Ceres may indeed be an icy world where surface ice does not flow rapidly.

“We tested different crustal structures in these simulations and found that a graded crust with high ice content near the surface, tapering down to lower ice as depth increases, is the best way to limit the loosening of Cerean craters,” Pamerleau said. he added.

Not an ordinary asteroid

Ceres is notable not only for its size (about 940 kilometers (584 miles) in diameter) but also for its complex geology.

Dr. “Ceres is actually more like a planet,” Sorey said. Its nearly spherical shape, along with features such as craters, volcanoes and landslides, make it a fascinating subject for planetary scientists.

The idea that Ceres could be an ocean world similar to Jupiter’s moon Europa opens up exciting possibilities.

“To me, the exciting part of all this is, if we’re right, we have a frozen ocean world pretty close to Earth,” Dr Sori said. he said.

This makes Ceres an attractive target for future missions to explore potential subsurface oceans and conditions that could support life.

A window into the solar system’s past

Understanding the composition and history of Ceres provides valuable clues about the early Solar System. As the largest asteroid, Ceres occupies the majority of the asteroid belt’s mass, making it a key player in theories of planet formation and the distribution of water in our solar neighborhood.

“Ceres may be a valuable comparison point for the ocean-containing icy moons of the outer solar system,” Dr Sori explained.

Additionally, the discovery of dirty icy crust indicates that Ceres may have resources such as water ice, which could be vital for future space exploration efforts. This ice could potentially be used to support life or as a component for fuel; This could make Ceres not only an object of scientific interest but also a potential center for human activities in space.

What will happen to asteroid Ceres next?

With Ceres now identified as possibly an icy world, scientists’ next steps include a more detailed study. Future missions may aim to drill beneath the surface to directly sample the mix of ice and rock, providing definitive evidence of Ceres’ ocean history.

In addition, studying Ceres helps scientists draw parallels with other icy bodies, improving our understanding of the conditions that led to the formation of oceans and possibly life. Dr Sori and his team emphasize that Ceres is the most accessible icy world we know of, making it an ideal candidate for further study.

“Some of the bright features we see on Ceres’ surface are remnants of Ceres’ dark ocean, which is now almost or completely frozen, and has come to the surface,” Pamerleau said. he said.

This provides a unique opportunity to collect samples from the ancient ocean without the extreme problems posed by more distant icy moons.

Secrets of the solar system

In summary, the new understanding that Ceres is an ice giant is changing our view of the asteroid belt and the broader dynamics of our solar system. By confirming that Ceres has a significant ice component, researchers have answered long-standing questions while raising new questions about the potential for life and the history of water in our celestial neighborhood. The full text of the research was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.