Variations in the amount of water ice on Ceres' surface suggest a seasonal water cycle.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29546238.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aao3757 and PMC identifier 5851659.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
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Abstract
The dwarf planet Ceres is known to host a considerable amount of water in its interior, and areas of water ice were detected by the Dawn spacecraft on its surface. Moreover, sporadic water and hydroxyl emissions have been observed from space telescopes. We report the detection of water ice in a mid-latitude crater and its unexpected variation with time. The Dawn spectrometer data show a change of water ice signatures over a period of 6 months, which is well modeled as ~2-km<sup>2</sup> increase of water ice. The observed increase, coupled with Ceres' orbital parameters, points to an ongoing process that seems correlated with solar flux. The reported variation on Ceres' surface indicates that this body is chemically and physically active at the present time.