Science Motivations for the Future Exploration of Ceres

Castillo‐Rogez, Julie; Scully, J. E. C.; Neveu, Marc; Wyrick, D. Y.; Thangjam, G.; Rivkin, A. S.; Sori, Michael M.; Vinogradoff, Vassilissa; Miller, Kelly B.; Ermakov, Anon; Hughson, K.; Quick, L. C.; Nathues, A.; Sanctis, M. C. De

doi:10.3847/25c2cfeb.542c3be2

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For biosignature preservation, exploring less reactive materials, such as amino acids or nucleobases, is critical to fully understanding their preservation, as these materials still may react under photochemical conditions. 44 Knowing how these organic molecules behave with reactive minerals can inform possible landing and collection sites for a future Ceres Sample Return mission concept, as described in Castillo-Rogez et al 3 This is especially critical to consider for surface sampling. 45 Organics in iron-rich areas on Ceres' surface may have decomposed more than other surface features.…”

Section: ■ Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Knowing how these organic molecules behave with reactive minerals can inform possible landing and collection sites for a future Ceres Sample Return mission concept, as described in Castillo-Rogez et al This is especially critical to consider for surface sampling . Organics in iron-rich areas on Ceres’ surface may have decomposed more than other surface features.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence for a large fraction of volatiles and long-lived energy sources has prompted the classification of Ceres as a candidate ocean world . This classification is supported by observations from NASA’s Dawn mission, which revealed geologic activity and evidence for brines under an icy crust, at least on a regional scale . Additionally, the Dawn mission detected high concentrations of organics locally via an organic absorption feature at 3.4 μm by the Visible and InfraRed Mapping Spectrometer (VIR) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…2 This classification is supported by observations from NASA's Dawn mission, which revealed geologic activity and evidence for brines under an icy crust, at least on a regional scale. 3 Additionally, the Dawn mission detected high concentrations of organics locally via an organic absorption feature at 3.4 μm by the Visible and InfraRed Mapping Spectrometer (VIR). 4 Dawn's VIR also detected phyllosilicates, magnetite, and salts (including carbonates), and the Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) found a high carbon content (up to 20 wt %) in the shallow subsurface (<1 m).…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Photochemical Stability and Reactivity of Sodium Pyruvate: Implications for Organic Analysis on Ceres

Weber,

Czaplinski,

Henderson

et al. 2024

ACS Earth Space Chem.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The dwarf planet Ceres is a high-priority target for future solar system exploration within this decade. This is motivated by the detection of organics by NASA's Dawn mission as well as the program of the 2023−2032 NASA Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, which includes a Ceres Sample Return mission as a target for future New Frontiers 6 and 7 opportunities. However, it is still not well understood what organic processes could be occurring on Ceres, especially regarding prebiotically relevant molecules in relation to surface minerals exposed to radiation. Understanding how organics are altered under irradiated conditions in a laboratory setup can give insight into how they may behave on the surface of Ceres, which would be important for contextualizing results from a future Ceres mission. In this work, we explored the irradiation of sodium pyruvate (NaPyr) in the solid phase, an important proto-metabolic precursor in prebiotic chemistry studies. We determined that sodium pyruvate is reactive both independently and in the presence of synthetic iron oxyhydroxide minerals via analysis with a residual gas analyzer, nuclear magnetic resonance, and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. This research has implications for organic survivability and reactivity on Ceres' surface, which is relevant for the detection of biosignatures in future missions.

show abstract

Section: ■ Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Photochemical Stability and Reactivity of Sodium Pyruvate: Implications for Organic Analysis on Ceres

Weber,

Czaplinski,

Henderson

et al. 2024

ACS Earth Space Chem.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Elemental and isotopic mapping, phase relationships, and structural mapping performed in Earth's laboratory could elucidate the formation and evolution of organic matter inside Ceres. In summary, the exact nature of organic matter and its emplacement history requires future in-situ investigations or sample return missions [12,58,59].…”

Section: Implications For the Composition Of Ceresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laboratory Investigations Coupled to VIR/Dawn Observations to Quantify the Large Concentrations of Organic Matter on Ceres

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Organic matter directly observed at the surface of an inner planetary body is quite infrequent due to the usual low abundance of such matter and the limitation of the infrared technique. Fortuitously, the Dawn mission has revealed, thanks to the Visible and InfraRed mapping spectrometer (VIR), large areas rich in organic matter at the surface of Ceres, near Ernutet crater. The origin of the organic matter and its abundance in association with minerals, as indicated by the low altitude VIR data, remains unclear, but multiple lines of evidence support an endogenous origin. Here, we report an experimental investigation to determine the abundance of the aliphatic carbon signature observed on Ceres. We produced relevant analogues containing ammoniated-phyllosilicates, carbonates, aliphatic carbons (coals), and magnetite or amorphous carbon as darkening agents, and measured their reflectance by infrared spectroscopy. Measurements of these organic-rich analogues were directly compared to the VIR spectra taken from different locations around Ernutet crater. We found that the absolute reflectance of our analogues is at least two orders of magnitude higher than Ceres, but the depths of absorption bands match nicely the ones of the organic-rich Ceres spectra. The choices of the different components are discussed in comparison with VIR data. Relative abundances of the components are extrapolated from the spectra and mixture composition, considering that the differences in reflectance level is mainly due to optical effects. Absorption bands of Ceres’ organic-rich spectra are best reproduced by around 20 wt.% of carbon (a third being aliphatic carbons), in association with around 20 wt.% of carbonates, 15 wt.% of ammoniated-phyllosilicate, 20 wt.% of Mg-phyllosilicates, and 25 wt.% of darkening agent. Results also highlight the pertinence to use laboratory analogues in addition to models for planetary surface characterization. Such large quantities of organic materials near Ernutet crater, in addition to the amorphous carbon suspected on a global scale, requires a concentration mechanism whose nature is still unknown but that could potentially be relevant to other large volatile-rich bodies.

show abstract

Science Motivations for the Future Exploration of Ceres

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

Photochemical Stability and Reactivity of Sodium Pyruvate: Implications for Organic Analysis on Ceres

Photochemical Stability and Reactivity of Sodium Pyruvate: Implications for Organic Analysis on Ceres

Laboratory Investigations Coupled to VIR/Dawn Observations to Quantify the Large Concentrations of Organic Matter on Ceres

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About