Dawn Archives

Ceres’s temperature evolution drives major interior events. - Depending on the extent of internal heating, a mid-sized (~500- to 1000-km radius) icy body such as Ceres may undergo differentiation and then metamorphism of its interior and ocean freezing, leading to the present-day interior structure. After accreting (1), the temperature within Ceres as a function of time and depth controls the events that determine Ceres’s habitability: (2) ice-rock differentiation at ~4 Myr, (3) metamorphic volatiles are added into the ocean ~0.5 to 2 Gyr, and (4) ocean freezing. Here, we assume the ice shell is made of pure water ice. - Science

Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release

Ceres May Have Had Long-Standing Energy to Fuel Habitability

by Keith CowingAugust 20, 2025August 20, 2025

The dwarf planet is cold now, but new research paints a picture of Ceres hosting a deep, long-lived energy source that may have maintained habitable conditions in the past.

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.

Additional bright deposits in shadowed craters proposed by Platz et al. (2016) shown at the highest available resolution in clear filter LAMO images, with the FC image number indicated. Images are shown as unprojected 150 × 150 pixel-sized crops with the contrast enhanced in shadowed areas. (a), (b), and (c) deposit #4. (d) and (e) #5. (f) #7. (g) #8. (h) #9. (i) #10. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Ceres, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Spectral Properties Of Bright Deposits In Permanently Shadowed Craters On Ceres

by Keith CowingJuly 24, 2024July 24, 2024

Bright deposits in permanently shadowed craters on Ceres are thought to harbor water ice. However, the evidence for water ice presented thus far is indirect.

Top panel: FC2 spectral endmember O (organic-rich), B (global Ceres background), and S (shade), respectively. Bottom panel: RGB map where the abundance of the endmember O is represented in red, the endmember B in green, and the S in blue. The pixel scale of this mosaic is ~136 m/pixel and the images were acquired with a phase value of ~50. Ernutet is the central crater (pointed by the yellow arrow) of the scene in which the organics are visible. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

New Candidates for Organic-rich Regions on Ceres

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2024June 24, 2024

We explore the spatial distribution of organics on Ceres using the visible and near-infrared data collected by the Dawn mission.

Irradiation of NaPyr Under Ceres Conditions

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ceres, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Status Report

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

by Keith CowingJune 19, 2024June 19, 2024

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 […]

Map of the north polar region of Ceres. The color areas are areas that are continuously shadowed over a Ceres year, and therefore very cold. The axis tilt (obliquity) of Ceres slowly changes over time and is currently 4 degrees, but ranged between 2 and 20 degrees over time. The color indicates the maximum obliquity at which a location is in shadow through an entire orbit. Credit: Erwan Mazarico/GSFC.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

History Of Ceres’s Young Cold Traps

by Keith CowingApril 16, 2024April 16, 2024

Ceres, the largest asteroid in our Solar System, harbors a dark secret: Extremely young ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters near its poles. If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because […]