Ceres Geology |
Ceres Geology |
Jan 22 2014, 06:14 PM
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#1
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
Paper out tomorrow: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25849871
Very exciting that we will visit this world soon! |
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Jan 25 2014, 11:44 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 102 Joined: 8-August 12 Member No.: 6511 |
An interesting question I haven't seen addressed: what's happening to the water?
Obviously most of it is being lost to space. But even with Ceres' weak gravity, you'd expect some water to recondense at "cold traps" -- cooler spots on Ceres' surface, i.e. in shadowed crater bottoms and at the poles. The technical term for this is "volatile transport", and we see it in some other places in the Solar System, like Jupiter's moon Callisto. (That's why all the impact craters on Callisto's icy surface look slumped and eroded.) If even 1% of the water vapor were to be recaptured, it would accumulate in the polar regions at a rate of a micron or two per year. That may not sound like much, but over astronomical time you'd see meters of accumulated condensation. But we don't see that. Ceres is a very dark body (its albedo is around 0.06, almost as dark as fresh asphalt) and water frost is bright. There are lighter patches on Ceres, but there don't seem to be bright ice caps at the poles. In a little while we'll know more. Patience... Doug M. |
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