Ammonia on Ceres

doi:10.1017/9781108856324.012

9 - Ammonia on Ceres

from Part II - Key Results from Dawn’s Exploration of Vesta and Ceres

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2022

Eleonora Ammannito and

Bethany Ehlmann

Edited by

Simone Marchi,

Carol A. Raymond and

Christopher T. Russell

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Simone Marchi: Affiliation:
Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado
Carol A. Raymond: Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology
Christopher T. Russell: Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles

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Summary

The presence of ammonium on Ceres was first speculated based on telescopic data in the 1990s. Subsequent data from Dawn unambiguously confirmed the presence on Ceres’s surface. Ammonium has been identified within near-ubiquitous dark materials, and in salts in few localized bright faculae in the interiors of craters as we describe further in this chapter.

The presence of ammonium on Ceres is significant because it implies the availability of ammonia during its evolution. More broadly, understanding the processes that led to the presence of ammonium on Ceres provides important information on the aqueous environments in the early Solar System and the origins and dynamical histories of the large outer main belt asteroids. We briefly review the significance of ammonia and then describe what was known or speculated about ammoniated species on Ceres before Dawn’s arrival. We then review findings of the Dawn mission, in particular the detection and mapping of ammoniated phases by the Visible and Infrared spectrometer (VIR): which species host ammonia/ammonium, their abundance, and spatial distribution. We then discuss the potential origins and implications of ammonia, drawing on laboratory studies and modeling efforts. Finally, we summarize the key findings and the outstanding questions that remain for future investigation.

Keywords

Ceres Dawn VIR Reflectance spectroscopy Ammonium Ammonia Surficial composition Small bodies thermal evolution Organic matter Solar System origin

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Type: Chapter
Information: Vesta and Ceres
Insights from the Dawn Mission for the Origin of the Solar System
, pp. 134 - 142
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108856324.012 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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