Search

The NASA Dawn mission revealed that the floor of Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres (in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter) is populated with small quasi-conical hills. Many of these features exhibit morphometric properties that are like those of ice-cored periglacial hills called pingos. Alternatively, some of these Cerean hills have also been hypothesized to be cryovolcanic in origin. If these hills are analogous to pingos, they represent ice-rich environments that are attractive targets for future exploration. We report new constraints on the morphologies of the Occator hills that aid in determining their origin. We also directly test how morphologically similar the hills in Occator are to pingos and volcanic cones on Earth using comparative statistical analyses. Using a novel application of kernel density estimation and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods we show that the morphologies of terrestrial pingos and volcanic cones are quantifiably distinct, and that the Cerean hills share significant morphometric similarities with pingos on Earth. Our findings indicate that a statistical treatment of morphometry alone can be a powerful tool for classifying and comparing planetary surface features, and that the majority of the resolved Cerean hills are morphometrically more similar to pingos than to small terrestrial volcanic cones.

The intimate mixture of ice and silicate within the uppermost few kilometres of Ceres influences its geology and the evolution of its subsurface. Both ground ice and cryovolcanic processes have been hypothesized to form geologic terrains on Ceres, including within Occator crater, where they have been suggested to influence the post-impact surface evolution. Both types of processes involve the presence and expression of volatiles and brines, such that distinguishing between them could be difficult. Here, we use images and topography data from the NASA Dawn mission to investigate the morphology, age and distribution of mounds and hills within Occator crater, and infer their origin. The shapes and relative ages of many of these features suggest that they formed as impact-induced water-rich flows that covered the crater floor refroze in a manner similar to the formation of periglacial ice-cored mounds on Earth called pingos. We suggest that impacts on Ceres produced hydrologic conditions for surface changes in the absence of cryovolcanic processes. Our findings imply that cryo-hydrologic processes extend beyond Earth and Mars, and have been active on Ceres in the geologically recent past. Mounds within Ceres’s Occator crater may have formed by freezing of water-rich impact-induced melt, by a process analogous to that of pingo formation on Earth, according to an analysis of data from NASA’s Dawn mission.

The gravity and shape data acquired by the Dawn spacecraft during its primary mission revealed that Ceres is partially differentiated with an interior structure consistent with a volatile-rich crust, a mantle of hydrated rock and isostatically compensated topography1–3. Detailed analyses showed that the mechanically strong crust overlays a weak, fluid-bearing upper mantle4. Previous studies, however, assumed that Ceres’s crust is a uniform layer. Here, we report findings from the new high-resolution gravity data from Dawn’s second extended mission (XM2), which reveal a complex crustal structure of Ceres. In the low-altitude regions probed by the Dawn spacecraft during the XM2 phase, we observe that gravity–topography admittance progressively shifts to a lower density solution at higher degrees, implying a radial density gradient across Ceres’s crust that is consistent with decreasing porosity with depth and/or increasing content of dense phases, such as rock and salts. That gradient brings a critical new constraint on the crustal freezing history, suggesting that the salts and silicates concentrated in the liquid phase while the crust was growing. Localized spectral analysis of the new data also shows evidence for a lower crustal density in the north polar region than in the south or near the equator, supporting impact-driven porosity variations for the observed latitudinal density differences5. On the local scale, the new data show evidence for density or rheological variations within the crust, in association with lobate landslides and ejecta deposits that were inferred to be ice-rich6,7 as well as an extensional fault system8. These inferences provide geophysical context for geological features on the surface and help us advance our understanding of the evolution of an ice-rich but heat-starved body, whose evolution was in part shaped by impacts. High-resolution gravity data from Dawn’s second extended mission could probe the global and local structure of Ceres’s crust. The results show significant spatial and vertical variations of crustal density and porosity, associated with ice features and ice-related processes driven from the interior, and impacts.

Hydrothermal processes in impact environments on water-rich bodies such as Mars and Earth are relevant to the origins of life. Dawn mapping of dwarf planet (1) Ceres has identified similar deposits within Occator crater. Here we show using Dawn high-resolution stereo imaging and topography that Ceres’ unique composition has resulted in widespread mantling by solidified water- and salt-rich mud-like impact melts with scattered endogenic pits, troughs, and bright mounds indicative of outgassing of volatiles and periglacial-style activity during solidification. These features are distinct from and less extensive than on Mars, indicating that Occator melts may be less gas-rich or volatiles partially inhibited from reaching the surface. Bright salts at Vinalia Faculae form thin surficial precipitates sourced from hydrothermal brine effusion at many individual sites, coalescing in several larger centers, but their ages are statistically indistinguishable from floor materials, allowing for but not requiring migration of brines from deep crustal source(s)., Dawn mission’s second extended phase provided high resolution observations of Occator crater of the dwarf planet Ceres. Here, the authors show stereo imaging and topographic maps of this crater revealing the influence of crustal composition on impact related melt and hydrothermal processes, and compare features to those on Mars, Earth and the Moon.

Before acquiring highest-resolution data of Ceres, questions remained about the emplacement mechanism and source of Occator crater’s bright faculae. Here we report that brine effusion emplaced the faculae in a brine-limited, impact-induced hydrothermal system. Impact-derived fracturing enabled brines to reach the surface. The central faculae, Cerealia and Pasola Facula, postdate the central pit, and were primarily sourced from an impact-induced melt chamber, with some contribution from a deeper, pre-existing brine reservoir. Vinalia Faculae, in the crater floor, were sourced from the laterally extensive deep reservoir only. Vinalia Faculae are comparatively thinner and display greater ballistic emplacement than the central faculae because the deep reservoir brines took a longer path to the surface and contained more gas than the shallower impact-induced melt chamber brines. Impact-derived fractures providing conduits, and mixing of impact-induced melt with deeper endogenic brines, could also allow oceanic material to reach the surfaces of other large icy bodies., The second extended phase of the Dawn mission provided high resolution observations of Occator crater of the dwarf planet Ceres. Here, the authors show that the central faculae were sourced in an impact-induced melt chamber, with a contribution from the deep brine reservoir, while the Vinalia Faculae were sourced by the deep brine reservoir alone.

International audience; Ceres, the most water-rich body in the inner solar system after Earth, has recently been recognized to have astrobiological importance. Chemical and physical measurements obtained by the Dawn mission enabled the quantification of key parameters, which helped to constrain the habitability of the inner solar system's only dwarf planet. The surface chemistry and internal structure of Ceres testify to a protracted history of reactions between liquid water, rock, and likely organic compounds. We review the clues on chemical composition, temperature, and prospects for long-term occurrence of liquid and chemical gradients. Comparisons with giant planet satellites indicate similarities both from a chemical evolution standpoint and in the physical mechanisms driving Ceres' internal evolution.

2 páginas.- 1 figura.- 16 referencias, To the Editor — 2021 is the International Year of Caves and Karst. To honour this occasion, we wish to emphasize the vast potential embodied in planetary subsurfaces. While researchers have pondered the possibility of extraterrestrial caves for more than 50 years, we have now entered the incipient phase of planetary caves exploration....

Occator crater is one of the most recognizable features on Ceres because of its interior bright regions, which are called the Cerealia Facula and Vinalia Faculae. Here we use high-resolution images from Dawn (∼35 m/pixel) to create a detailed geologic map that focuses on the interior of Occator crater and its ejecta. Occator's asymmetric ejecta indicates that the Occator-forming impactor originated from the northwest at an angle of ∼30–45°, perhaps closer to ∼30° Some of Occator's geologic units are analogous to the units of other complex craters in the region: the ejecta, crater terrace material, hummocky crater floor material and talus material. The geologic units that make Occator unique are the bright Occator pit/fracture material (this is the unit that corresponds to the Cerealia Facula and Vinalia Faculae) and the extensive, well-preserved lobate materials. We propose that the lobate materials are a slurry of impact-melted and non-impact-melted target material, which flowed around the crater interior before solidifying to form deposits geomorphologically consistent with impact melts elsewhere in the Solar System. We sub-divide the lobate materials on the basis of their surface textures. It is likely that knobby or smooth lobate materials form if the lobate material entrains or does not entrain blocks, respectively. Post-impact inflation is suggested to form the hummocky lobate material. The Vinalia Faculae formed within the hummocky lobate material. We find that the knobby lobate material and the outer edge of the Cerealia Facula formed prior to the central pit. The central dome formed after the formation of the central pit, while the majority of the Cerealia Facula (besides the outer edge) could have formed, continued to form and/or have been modified after the formation of the central pit. The Cerealia Facula may have initially been emplaced in a similar process to the Vinalia Faculae, and the surface of the Cerealia Facula appear to have somewhat darkened over time. The insights into Occator crater and its faculae derived from our geologic mapping will be synthesized together with inputs from all of the studies in this special issue in Scully et al. (2018a ).

Occator crater is perhaps the most distinct surface feature observed by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on the Cerean surface. Contained within the crater are the highest albedo features on the planet, Cerealia Facula and Vinalia Faculae, and relatively smooth lobate flow deposits. We present hydrocode simulations of the formation of Occator crater, varying the water to rock ratio of our pre-impact Cerean surface. We find that at water to rock mass ratios up to 0.3, sufficient volumes of Occator's post-impact subsurface would be above the melting point of water to allow for the deposition of faculae-like deposits via impact-heat driven hydrothermal effusion of brines. This reservoir of hydrothermally viable material beneath the crater is composed of a mixture of impactor material and material uplifted from 10′s of kilometers beneath the pre-impact surface, which could sample a deep subsurface volatile reservoir, if present. Using a conductive cooling model, we estimate that the lifetime of hydrothermal activity within such a system, depending on choice of material constants, is between 0.4 and 4 Myr. Our results suggest that impact heating from the Occator forming impact provides a viable mechanism for the creation of the observed faculae, with the proviso that the faculae formed within a relatively short time window after the crater itself formed.

The distinctive bright regions within Occator crater are one of the most remarkable discoveries of the Dawn mission's exploration of Ceres. The central region is named Cerealia Facula and the additional regions in the eastern crater floor are named Vinalia Faculae. Here we summarize and synthesize the results of this special issue, which aimed to identify the driving forces behind the formation of Occator and the faculae, and thus lead us to a new understanding of the processes and conditions that occurred in Ceres’ past, and potentially in its present. The investigations presented here used Dawn data, theoretical modeling and laboratory experiments to deduce the sequence of events that led to the formation of Occator, Cerealia Facula and Vinalia Faculae, which are broken into stages 1–3. Stage 1: Occator's ejecta blanket, terraces and hummocky crater floor material formed during and shortly after crater formation. These features are located in many Cerean complex craters. However, Occator also contains the lobate materials and faculae, which are unique to Occator. We interpret the lobate materials as a slurry of water, soluble salts and boulders of unmelted silicates/salts, which flowed around the crater interior before solidifying. At least portions of the lobate materials were solidified prior to the formation of the central pit, which is suggested to form via the ‘melted uplift model’ and provides insights into central pit formation across the Solar System. We propose the outer edge of Cerealia Facula formed shortly after the Occator-forming impact, via impact-induced hydrothermal brine deposition or via salt-rich water fountaining (perhaps sourced in a pre-existing reservoir). Stage 2: the majority of Cerealia Facula is located within the central pit and is interpreted to have formed later, at least ∼18 Myr after the Occator-forming impact, via multiple depositional events. The Cerealia-Facula-forming brines may have flowed out of fractures in the walls of the central pit and/or been driven to the surface by freezing of a subsurface reservoir and/or deposited via salt-rich water fountains. Further investigations are required to identify whether the formation of the majority of Cerealia Facula is driven by processes triggered by an impact, i.e. an exogenic event, or by a combination of impact-driven and endogenic processes. Cryomagmatic intrusions are suggested to uplift the crater floor, resulting in concentric floor fractures and an asymmetric dome. Injection of a similar material is proposed to inflate part of the lobate materials, giving them a hummocky texture. The resulting stresses formed fractures in the hummocky lobate material, which allowed the Vinalia-Faculae-forming brines to travel to the surface, where they ballistically erupted. The central dome within the central pit was one of the last features to form, by laccolithic intrusion, or by volume expansion from freezing of volatiles, or by extrusion of brines. Stage 3: mixing with Ceres’ average materials and/or space weathering darken the faculae over time. Cerealia Facula and Vinalia Faculae are the brightest and freshest of the bright regions identified on Ceres’ surface. Bright regions darken over time until their eventual erasure. Thus, it is likely that faculae formation has occurred throughout Ceres’ history, but that Occator's faculae are visible today because they are geologically young. Through synthesis of the studies presented in this special issue, we find that entirely exogenic driving forces, triggered by the impact, or a combination of endogenic and impact-derived forces could explain the formation of Occator and its faculae. Whether activity is impact-triggered and/or endogenic in nature is a key question for all investigations of Ceres, and future studies may favor one possibility over the other. The investigations presented in our special issue indicate Ceres is an active world where brines have been mobile in the geologically recent past. As such, Ceres is an intriguing world that we have only begun to explore.

Occator crater, a Ceres crater that hosts multiple bright spots on its floor, has several sets of fractures associated with it. A tectonic analysis of each of these fracture sets suggests that the concentric and radial fractures around the central pit and the concentric fractures high on the crater wall (near the rim) most likely formed due to well known impact cratering processes. Uplift of the crater floor due to magmatic injection is suggested to have resulted in the concentric floor fractures at the base of the crater wall, as well as the cross-cutting fractures in the lower part of the southwestern wall. A mathematical analysis shows that a cryomagmatic plume (diapir) could have both reached the height necessary to cause fracturing within Occator, and that the stresses required are reasonable. Expansion a lobate flow from beneath is proposed to have formed those linear fractures associated with the Vinalia Faculae. Circumferential fractures surrounding Occator appear to have formed due to the volumetric compaction of the ejecta blanket over the buried pre-existing topography.

The Dawn spacecraft has imaged several putative cryovolcanic features on Ceres, and several lines of evidence point to past cryovolcanic activity at Occator crater. It is therefore possible that cryovolcanism played a key role in delivering sodium carbonate- and chloride-enriched brines to Ceres’ surface in recent geological times. The detection of a 200 km×200 km negative Bouguer anomaly beneath Occator suggests the presence of a low-density region beneath the crater. If this region is a residual, partially crystallized, cryomagma chamber, excess pressures caused by its gradual freezing, or stresses produced by the Occator-forming impact, could have facilitated the delivery of cryolavas to the surface in the geologically recent past. Here, the progressive solidification of a cryomagma chamber beneath Occator and implications for the delivery of cryolavas to the surface has been explored. Models for the behavior of cryolavas at Ceres’ surface, and for the formation of the Cerealia Dome and Vinalia Faculae, are also presented. Minimal crystallization of a subsurface fluid reservoir located at the crust-mantle boundary could have driven cryolavas enriched in chloride salts and NH3 to Ceres’ surface. However, cryolavas enriched in sodium carbonates would have had to have existed at shallower levels in the crust in order to be delivered to the surface via pressure-driven ascent. Depending on the size of the reservoir, cryolavas could have been driven to Ceres’ surface for tens to hundreds of millions of years after cooling of the cryomagma chamber commenced. The mineralogy at Occator is suggestive of subsurface cryomagma reservoirs enriched in sodium carbonate and chloride salts. Aqueous solutions enriched in chloride salts and/or ammonia would have arrived at the surface at warm enough temperatures to erupt if transported in propagating fractures that traveled at least 10−5 m/s. Additionally, if the Cerealia Dome was formed from viscous cryolava extrusions, bulk kinematic lava viscosities may have been between 106–108 m2/s at the onset of relaxation. Plausible relaxation times to form the dome, which are linked to bulk cryolava rheology, are found to have ranged from 2.5 to 273 days. Moreover, the low volatile content necessary to drive explosive eruptions on Ceres supports the possibility that Cerealia and Vinalia Faculae were emplaced as a consequence of ballistic eruptions. The enigmatic geology of Occator crater is consistent with a diversity of exchange processes operating on Ceres in the geologically recent past. Further, the processes that have occurred at Occator could shed light on the changing geology associated with a relic ocean world. Future studies of Occator and Ceres should be undertaken with these results in mind.

The prominent bright deposit Cerealia Facula, Ceres, coincides with the central depression (or central pit) of the recently formed 92 km-wide complex crater Occator. The central pit is 9–10 km wide and up to 1 km deep and is partially filled with a 700 m-high 2 km-wide dome. The upper surface of the central dome is densely fractured but the flanks are not, indicating that uplift of the dome surface occurred after the bright deposit was emplaced, and primarily through uplift of the surface from below by laccolithic intrusion or volume expansion. The pit is rimless except for two prominent massifs that flank it to the east and west. This pit-dome morphology bears a strong resemblance in morphology, topography, and dimensions to central pit craters observed on Ganymede and Callisto, but is essentially absent on the similar sized ice-rich moons of Uranus, Saturn, and Pluto. The lack of pit craters on midsize icy moons and the possible lack of central pit craters at the cold poles of Ceres suggest that temperature is a significant controlling factor in central pit formation, beyond the canonical inverse-gravity scaling of complex crater transitions. While renewed modeling will benefit from these new constraints, the mapping of central pits on Ceres, including Occator, suggests that either the rheologically layered target model or more likely the melted central uplift model may be the most probable explanation for central pit formation on Ceres (lack of similar high-resolution imaging on the Galilean icy satellites precludes definitive evaluation of models there). Large volumes of lobate floor-fill material at least 600 m thick in some places cover large areas of the southern and eastern floor of Occator, and small outcrops of this unit are found perched high on closed topographic depressions on the Occator terrace zone and other higher areas of the crater floor. The swirling and knobby surface textures of these lobate deposits are essentially indistinguishable from those on impact melt sheets on large lunar craters such as Tycho. These observations indicate that this unit is most likely an impact melt sheet formed from melted water ice admixed with unmelted particulate or dissolved phyllosilicates, salts and/or carbonates, and large quantities of fragmented debris. Melt of ice phases within Ceres crust is also supported by independent numerical models of impact at Occator and would provide a ready source of fluids to promote hydrothermal deposition of the observed bright Na-carbonates on the surface of the central pit at Occator, if the deposit formed within a million years or so of impact. The central dome finds analogs in salt domes on Earth and pingos (frost-mounds) on Earth and Mars, which form by water and solute migration and freeze expansion. Later freezing of a central reservoir of volatiles beneath the central pit at Occator or mobilization of ice or other phases during the cooling and refreezing process could explain the uplift of the central dome. Finally, no changes were detected in the Cerealia and Vinalia Facula bright deposits during the course of the prime Dawn mapping mission, placing additional constraints on their formation time and limits on ongoing activity.

Impact craters of different geological ages, sizes and morphologies are not only the most obvious surface features on Ceres’ surface. The investigation of their spectral properties in combination with Ceres’ geology and topography reveals not only lateral compositional variations in Ceres’ surface material but also possible stratigraphic differences within Ceres’ crust. Spectral properties of impact craters with different ages do show distinct trends implying variations with increasing exposure duration of the impact material onto Ceres’ surface. Local concentrations of H2O ice and carbonates are associated with the youngest, either recently emplaced or excavated, surface deposits. On the contrary, regionally higher amounts of ammoniated phyllosilicates originate from deeper regions of Ceres’ crust and strengthen the theory of ammonia being a primordial constituent of Ceres. The blue spectral slope, clearly associated with relatively weak absorptions of OH-bearing and/or ammoniated phyllosilicates, is limited to fresh impact material. Either, the blue spectral slope diminishes slowly with increasing geologic age due to space weathering processes, or shortly as a result of gravitation-induced slumping, forming a fine and loosely consolidated regolith.

We studied the surface composition of Ceres within the limits of the Ezinu quadrangle in the ranges 180–270°E and 21–66°N by analyzing data from Dawn's visible and near-infrared data from the Visible and InfraRed mapping spectrometer and from multispectral images from the Framing Camera. Our analysis includes the distribution of hydroxylated minerals, ammoniated phyllosilicates, carbonates, the search for organic materials and the characterization of physical properties of the regolith. The surface of this quadrangle is largely homogenous, except for small, high-albedo carbonate-rich areas, and one zone on dark, lobate materials on the floor of Occator, which constitute the main topics of investigation. (1) Carbonate-rich surface compositions are associated with H2O ice rich crust. Weaker absorption bands of hydroxylated and ammoniated minerals over the carbonate-rich areas can be explained by higher abundances of carbonates at the topmost surface. (2) Dark, smooth lobate materials at the foot of Occator's northeastern wall possibly reveal fresh slumping of phyllosilicate-rich materials with fine grain size, or local enrichment in carbon-rich materials such as tholins. (3) The deeper absorption band depth of OH and NH4, on the rim of several impact craters, is one observation that is consistent with a stratification of the phyllosilicate abundance that has been inferred previously from global investigations.

The Dawn Framing Camera repeatedly imaged Ceres’ North Pole quadrangle (Ac-1 Asari, latitudes >66°N) at a resolution of ∼35 m/pixel through a panchromatic filter, enabling the derivation of a digital terrain model (DTM) and an ortho-rectified mosaic. Using this dataset, a photo-geologic map and stratigraphy, complemented with absolute model ages of impact craters, were produced. We identified the following key surface features: an ancient 4.5 km high isolated dome with a non-impact origin; recent lobate materials on crater interiors possibly formed as high-speed flows of collapsed rim material; and recent bright areas in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), which we interpret as ice accumulation mostly by infall of exogenic material. Crater morphologies and dimensions do not differ from those in other quadrangles, suggesting the widespread influence of a rheologically weak target during the crater formation process. There is a paucity of lobate materials associated with impact cratering, in contrast to previous identifications with lower spatial resolution imagery.

Dawn is the first spacecraft to visit and orbit Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt and the only dwarf planet in the inner Solar System. The Dawn science team undertook a systematic geologic mapping campaign of Ceres’ entire surface. Here we present our contribution to this mapping campaign, a geologic map and geologic history of the Ezinu quadrangle, located in the northern mid latitudes from 21–66° N and 180–270° E. From our map, we reconstruct the geologic history of Ezinu quadrangle, which is dominated by impact cratering. Large impact craters that formed a few hundreds to tens of millions of years ago, such as Datan, Messor, Ninsar and Occator, are surrounded by ejecta and contain the products of mass wasting (hummocky crater floor material and talus material) and crater-wall collapse (terrace material). Two of these large impact craters are the sources of lobate flows, which we interpret as melt flows emplaced after the ballistically deposited ejecta. Morphological evidence suggests these lobate flows are rich in water–ice-bearing material that was excavated during the formation of the impact craters. There are only a few localized occurrences of lobate flows, suggesting that the water–ice-bearing source materials have restricted extents and/or are deeply buried within Ceres’ subsurface. The quadrangle also contains a variety of linear features: secondary crater chains are formed by the impact of locally and globally sourced material and pit chains and grooves are formed by the collapse of surficial materials into sub-surface fractures. The Ezinu quadrangle contains the northern portion of Occator crater, which is the host crater of prominent bright regions called faculae. Our geologic analysis therefore also provides context for the future investigation of Occator and its intriguing faculae.

We conducted a geologic mapping investigation of Dawn spacecraft data to determine the geologic history of the Kerwan impact basin region of dwarf planet Ceres, which is mostly located in the Ac-7 Kerwan Quadrangle. Geological mapping was applied to Dawn Framing Camera images from the Low Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO, 35 m/pixel) and supplemented by digital terrain models and color images from the High Altitude Mapping Orbit (HAMO, 135 m/pixel), as well as preliminary Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (VIR) and gravity data. The 284-km diameter Kerwan impact basin is the oldest unequivocal impact crater on Ceres, and has a highly discontinuous, polygonal, degraded rim and contains a ‘smooth’ unit that both fills the basin floor and surrounds the degraded rim to the west, south, and east. Although there are some subtle topographic features in the Kerwan basin that could be interpreted as flow boundaries, there is no indisputable evidence of cryovolcanic features in or around the basin (however if such features existed they could be buried). Nevertheless, all data point to impact-induced melting of a cerean crust enriched in a volatile, likely water ice, to produce the Kerwan smooth material. Subsequent geologic activity in this region includes emplacement of impact craters such as Dantu, which produced a variety of colorful deposits, and rayed craters such as Rao and Cacaguat. Based on the crater size-frequency distribution absolute model ages of the Kerwan smooth material in and around the basin, marking a minimum age for the Kerwan basin, our mapping defines this as the oldest boundary within the cerean geologic timescale, separating the Pre-Kerwanan and Kerwanan Periods at > 1.3 Ga (Lunar-derived chronology model) or > 230–850 Ma (Asteroid-derived chronology model, depending on strength of target material).

Since its arrival at Ceres, DAWNs Framing Camera has been imaging the dwarf planet at different altitudes, using 8 different filters. Based on these images, global clear filter mosaics, digital terrain models, and global color mosaics were produced. These datasets are basis for the derived photogeologic map of the Ac2 Coniraya quadrangle, located between 0° and 90° eastern longitude and between 20° and 40° northern latitude. Crater size frequency distribution (CSFD) measurements have been applied to derive the stratigraphic history of the identified geologic units in the Ac2 Coniraya quadrangle. Based on these investigations, we found that the Ac2 Coniraya quadrangle shows evidence for a long geologic history lasting over 3.5 Ga. Most of the identified geologic units are related to impact cratering at different periods of time. While the oldest unit identified in the Ac2 Coniraya quadrangle, the cratered terrain, shows an absolute model age (AMA) of 3.3 to 3.5 Ga, the youngest units, including fresh impact craters and lobate flows, show AMAs of < 100 Ma. The large number of different sized impact craters excavated a variety of materials with different colors and albedo, indicative of a heterogeneous crustal composition, including water or volatiles. Pits identified at Ikapati craters smooth deposits might further indicate the presence of volatiles in the subsurface. Furthermore, our mapping of the Ac2 Coniraya quadrangle shows that possible H 2 O ice in the crust is heterogeneously distributed, as lobate flows, bright spots, and pits are only found at certain locations, related to relatively fresh impact craters.

International audience

Ceres, the only dwarf planet in the inner Solar System, appears to be a relict ocean world. Data collected by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft provided evidence that global aqueous alteration within Ceres resulted in a chemically evolved body that remains volatile-rich1. Recent emplacement of bright deposits sourced from brines attests to Ceres being a persistently geologically active world2,3, but the surprising longevity of this activity at the 92-km Occator crater has yet to be explained. Here, we use new high-resolution Dawn gravity data to study the subsurface architecture of the region surrounding Occator crater, which hosts extensive young bright carbonate deposits (faculae). Gravity data and thermal modelling imply an extensive deep brine reservoir beneath Occator, which we argue could have been mobilized by the heating and deep fracturing associated with the Occator impact, leading to long-lived extrusion of brines and formation of the faculae. Moreover, we find that pre-existing tectonic cracks may provide pathways for deep brines to migrate within the crust, extending the regions affected by impacts and creating compositional heterogeneity. The long-lived hydrological system resulting from the impact might also occur for large impacts in icy moons, with implications for creation of transient habitable niches over time. High-resolution data of Ceres’s bright spots (faculae), obtained by Dawn’s second extended mission, suggest the existence of a deep brine-rich reservoir that emerged to the surface through long-lived cryovolcanic activity as a consequence of the impact that created Occator crater.

Landslides are among the most widespread geologic features on Ceres. Using data from Dawn's Framing Camera, landslides were previously classified based upon geomorphologic characteristics into one of three archetypal categories, Type 1(T1), Type 2 (T2), and Type 3 (T3). Due to their geologic context, variation in age, and physical characteristics, most landslides on Ceres are, however, intermediate in their morphology and physical properties between the archetypes of each landslide class. Here we describe the varied morphology of individual intermediate landslides, identify geologic controls that contribute to this variation, and provide first‐order quantification of the physical properties of the continuum of Ceres's surface flows. These intermediate flows appear in varied settings and show a range of characteristics, including those found at contacts between craters, those having multiple trunks or lobes; showing characteristics of both T2 and T3 landslides; material slumping on crater rims; very small, ejecta‐like flows; and those appearing inside of catenae. We suggest that while their morphologies can vary, the distribution and mechanical properties of intermediate landslides do not differ significantly from that of archetypal landslides, confirming a link between landslides and subsurface ice. We also find that most intermediate landslides are similar to Type 2 landslides and formed by shallow failure. Clusters of these features suggest ice enhancement near Juling, Kupalo and Urvara craters. Since the majority of Ceres's landslides fall in the intermediate landslide category, placing their attributes in context contributes to a better understanding of Ceres's shallow subsurface and the nature of ground ice., Key Points Landslides on Ceres have a wide range of morphologiesSubsurface ice affects the formation of most landslides on Ceres and influences their morphologyCeres has widespread ground ice with ice enhancements near the poles and within Juling and Kupalo craters

Data returned from the Cassini–Huygens mission have strengthened Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn, as an important target in the search for life in our solar system. Information gathered from Cassini to support this includes the presence of a subsurface liquid water ocean, vapor plumes and ice grains emanating from its south polar region, and the detection of essential elements and organic material that could potentially support life. However, several outstanding questions remain regarding the connectivity of plume material to the ocean and the composition of the complex organic material. Herein we introduce Tiger, a mission concept developed during the 2020 Planetary Science Summer School at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Tiger is a flyby mission that would help further constrain the habitability of Enceladus through two science objectives: (1) determine whether Enceladus’s volatile inventory undergoes synthesis of complex organic species that are evidence for a habitable ocean, and (2) determine whether Enceladus’s plume material is supplied directly from the ocean or if it interfaces with other reservoirs within the ice shell. To address the science goals in a total of eight flybys, Tiger would carry a four-instrument payload, including a mass spectrometer, a single-band ice-penetrating radar, an ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, and an imaging camera. We discuss Tiger's instrument and mission architecture, as well as the trades and challenges associated with a habitability-focused New Frontiers–class flyby mission to Enceladus.

Ceres is the largest asteroid belt object, and the Dawn spacecraft observed Ceres since 2015. Dawn observed two morphologically distinct linear features on Ceres’s surface: secondary crater chains and pit chains. Pit chains provide unique insights into Ceres’s interior evolution. We interpret pit chains called the Samhain Catenae as the surface expression of subsurface fractures. Using the pit chains’ spacings, we estimate that the localized thickness of Ceres’s fractured, outer layer is approximately ≥58 km, at least ~14 km greater than the global average. We hypothesize that extensional stresses, induced by a region of upwelling material arising from convection/diapirism, formed the Samhain Catenae. We derive characteristics for this upwelling material, which can be used as constraints in future interior modeling studies. For example, its predicted location coincides with Hanami Planum, a high-elevation region with a negative residual gravity anomaly, which may be surficial evidence for this proposed region of upwelling material.

The geology of the outstanding crater Occator on Ceres has been studied by combining highest resolution color images and other information from the DAWN mission. Thus, surface and sub-surface layers and geologic processes can be understood and interpreted in a consistent manner. In order to achieve this, morphometry, absolute surface unit ages, color, and the distribution of foci of activity were the key data. These data show that the ascent of brine from reservoir(s) at depth and deposition of its salts on the surface persisted much longer than initially thought possible as an immediate result of the primary impact. The youngest depositional processes of bright material occurred less than 2 Ma ago. Also, the bright Cerealia and Vinalia Faculae are not the only traces of this activity; updoming is present on the southwestern crater floor. Faculae coincide with fractures and vents and indicate complex mechanisms of the deposition of bright carbonate-rich material. Due to the large age difference between the Occator impact itself, modeled cooling times of heated crater material, and the recent activity at the faculae we conclude that endogenic forces were lately acting. The distribution and thickness of surface and sub-surface brine layers are far from homogeneous in the upper crust beneath Occator. Further evidence regarding the distribution of materials has been derived from the distribution of the ejecta and the transition of ejecta to background material outside the crater.