How aliphatic organic compounds originated on the dwarf planet Ceres has been the subject of intensive research since their discovery by NASA’s Dawn mission in 2017. Some studies have concluded that a comet or other organic-rich impactor delivered them to Ceres; others indicate the molecules formed on the dwarf planet after its primordial materials were altered by briny water. New research led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory planetary scientists is extending our understanding of how impacts have affected Ceres’ aliphatic molecules and what the implications are for determining their origin and assessing the dwarf planet’s habitability.
“The organics were initially detected in the vicinity of a large impact crater, which is what motivated us to look at how impacts affect these organics,” said lead author Dr. Terik Daly, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
“Although researchers have performed impact and shock experiments on various types of organics in the past, what was missing was a study dedicated to the type of organics detected on Ceres using the same type of analytical method used by the Dawn spacecraft to detect them.”
Dr. Daly and colleagues conducted a series of experiments at the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range.
The experiments mimicked the impact conditions typical of Ceres, with impact speeds ranging between 2-6 km/s (4,400-13,000 mph) and impact angles varying between 15 and 90 degrees relative to horizontal.
The authors also conducted a new analysis that combined data from two different instruments — the camera and the imaging spectrometer that flew on the Dawn spacecraft — and then used an algorithm to extrapolate the compositional information from the spectrometer down to the camera’s higher spatial resolution.
The results allowed them to investigate the organics at finer detail than has previously been possible.
“People had looked at the Dawn camera data and the Dawn spectrometer…
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