Ceres Archives

Planetary exploration is characterized by unknowns, which are both the primary reason and challenge for exploration.

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Comets and Asteroids, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors

Planetary Exploration 3.0: A Roadmap for Software-Defined, Radically Adaptive Space Systems

by Keith CowingApril 24, 2026April 24, 2026

The surface and subsurface of worlds beyond Mars remain largely unexplored. Yet these worlds hold keys to fundamental questions in planetary science – from potentially habitable subsurface oceans on icy […]

Scanning electron microscopy images showing representative regions of desiccated salt samples. Top row: Flash frozen; bottom row: slow frozen. (a) NaCl flash frozen, (d) NaCl slow frozen; (b) Na2SO4 flash frozen, (e) Na2SO4 slow frozen; (c) Na2CO3 flash frozen, (f) Na2CO3 slow frozen. -- JGR Planets

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Enceladus, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Microstructure Controls Sublimation Timescales of Exposed Salt-Rich Ices on Icy Worlds

by Keith CowingOctober 23, 2025October 22, 2025

Salt-rich water ice at the surfaces of icy worlds, for example, Europa, Enceladus, and Ceres, is of particular interest for Solar System exploration as it can represent a record of […]

This illustration depicts the interior of dwarf planet Ceres, including the transfer of water and gases from the rocky core to a reservoir of salty water as a consequence of internal heating. NASA ID: PIA26570 larger image

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Fluid Flow In Ceres Due To Core Heating

by Keith CowingOctober 10, 2025October 10, 2025

A couple examples of molecules carrying chemical energy – carbon dioxide and methane – are included in the illustration.

(a) Galileo Solid State Imaging (SSI) false color data of Europa’s leading hemisphere and Tara Regio (credit: NASA, JPL/Caltech, PIA01295). (b) Illustration of chaos on Europa (credit: NASA, GSFC, PIA00840), showing hypothesized geologic communication between its subsurface ocean and surface (chaos formation mechanisms summarized in e.g., Daubar et al. 2024). (c) Spectral map showing the distribution of irradiated NaCl on Europa, highlighting its concentration in and around Tara Regio (modified from Trumbo et al. 2019). -- astro-ph.IM

Ariel, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Enceladus, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Assessing Ocean World Habitability With HWO

by Keith CowingJuly 11, 2025July 11, 2025

The instrument payload of the future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will span a wide range of wavelengths, including the ultraviolet (UV) region that cannot be easily accessed from the ground […]

Surface of Ryugu, taken at night by Hyabusa-2's Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) camera MASCOT/DLR/JAXA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Sample Return, Status Report

Challenges and Opportunities in Using Amino Acids to Decode Carbonaceous Chondrite and Asteroid Parent Body Processes

by Keith CowingJune 10, 2025June 10, 2025

Carbonaceous chondrite (CC) meteorites are fragments of planetesimals that hold clues about the early solar system’s organic matter. Amino acids are key to life on Earth; thus their study from […]

Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice and vapor from many locations along the famed "tiger stripes" near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The tiger stripes are four prominent, approximately 84-mile- (135-kilometer-) long fractures that cross the moon's south polar terrain. Larger image

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Enceladus, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Supercooling, Glass Formation, and Mineral Assemblages upon Freezing of Salty Ice Grains from Enceladus’s Ocean

by Keith CowingApril 21, 2025April 21, 2025

The analysis of micrometer-sized ice grains emitted into space by Saturn’s moon Enceladus suggests that the moon’s subsurface ocean may be habitable. However, the formation conditions of these ice grains […]

Irregular satellite orbital inclinations and semimajor axes (normalized to Jupiter’s Hill radius). Family groupings are given as indicated. The prograde population is dominated in mass and number by the Himalia family. The retrograde population is categorized into three orbital families, with the more widely dispersed Pasiphae and Ananke families and the more tightly grouped Carme family. This work studies the Himalia, Carme, Pasiphae, and Ananke families, as well as the isolated satellite Themisto. Orbital parameters from JPL Horizons. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report

JWST Reveals Varied Origins Between Jupiter’s Irregular Satellites

by Keith CowingFebruary 5, 2025February 5, 2025

We report observations of eight Jovian irregular satellites with JWST’s NIRSpec instrument: Himalia, Elara, Pasiphae, Sinope, Lysithea, Carme, Ananke, and Themisto. Irregular satellite families, which are presumed to have formed […]

Spectrally red-sloped sites on Ceres identified by the deep neural network. Steep red-sloped spectra (organic-rich) are shown in/as red boxes. Yellow boxes indicate locations of moderately red-sloped pixels, which except for Vinotonus do not display the ∼3.4 micron organic feature. Occator red-sloped material is not marked because of its different nature (see text). A blue rectangle outlines an area overlapping Urvara and Yalode, where carbonate-rich materials are exposed. The exact locations of the identified reddish material are marked by small light-green boxes. The area bounded within the blue rectangle is referred to as the “Urvara-Yalode” region. See Figure 9 and Figure S9 in Supporting Information S1 for more details on these sites. Background image is the equirectangular global mosaic of Ceres created using ∼130 m/pix High Altitude Mapping Orbit color data (R-965 nm; G-749 nm; B-438 nm). -- AGU Advances

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release

Dwarf Planet Ceres: Building Blocks Of Life Delivered From Space

by Keith CowingJanuary 28, 2025January 28, 2025

Organic molecules are among the necessary inventory of life-friendly worlds. On Earth, the compounds of carbon, hydrogen and – in smaller quantities – other elements form the basic building blocks […]

Map of the AOs on Ceres, using as a proxy the 3.4-μm band depth (scale bar) derived by the Dawn VIR data, superimposed to a context map of the Ernutet region. The inset shows an example of a spectrum of aliphatic-rich pixels compared with an average spectrum of the Ernutet region taken by the VIR spectrometer. -- Science via PubMed

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Status Report

Recent Replenishment Of Aliphatic Organics On Ceres From A Large Subsurface Reservoir

by Keith CowingDecember 6, 2024December 6, 2024

Ceres hosts notable aliphatic-organic concentrations, ranging from approximately 5 to >30 weight % in specific surface areas.

This simulation was run in a uniformly 90% ice crust (Fig. 1a) at the equator and shows total vertical displacement after 1 Gyr of relaxation. The black lines are the initial state of the simulation, and the solid colour shows the final state of the simulation. In this case, the crater has only shallowed by ~70 m from an initial depth of 2,400 m (seen as the solid colour at the centre of the crater slightly offset from the black line), for a relaxation percentage of

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Ceres, Comets and Asteroids, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

An Ancient And Impure Frozen Ocean On Ceres Implied By Its Ice-rich Crust

by Keith CowingSeptember 30, 2024September 29, 2024

Ceres is a key object in understanding the evolution of small bodies and is the only dwarf planet to have been orbited by a spacecraft, NASA’s Dawn mission.

Ceres

Planetary Exploration 3.0: A Roadmap for Software-Defined, Radically Adaptive Space Systems

Microstructure Controls Sublimation Timescales of Exposed Salt-Rich Ices on Icy Worlds

Fluid Flow In Ceres Due To Core Heating

Assessing Ocean World Habitability With HWO

Challenges and Opportunities in Using Amino Acids to Decode Carbonaceous Chondrite and Asteroid Parent Body Processes

Supercooling, Glass Formation, and Mineral Assemblages upon Freezing of Salty Ice Grains from Enceladus’s Ocean

JWST Reveals Varied Origins Between Jupiter’s Irregular Satellites

Dwarf Planet Ceres: Building Blocks Of Life Delivered From Space

Recent Replenishment Of Aliphatic Organics On Ceres From A Large Subsurface Reservoir

An Ancient And Impure Frozen Ocean On Ceres Implied By Its Ice-rich Crust

NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,206 2 July 2026 (Space Life Science Research Results)

Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Concerns

Bridging Astrobiology Research and Education Through Interactive Learning Frameworks

Viking In The History And Future Of Astrobiology Programs

Collaborating With Artists In The Search For Life