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Register a new userHaze at Occator crater on dwarf planet Ceres
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A diurnal varying haze layer at the bright spots of Occator on dwarf planet Ceres has been reported from images of the Dawn Framing Camera. This finding is supported by ground-based observations revealing diurnal albedo changes at Occators longitude. In the present work, we further investigate the previously reported haze phenomenon in more detail using additional Framing Camera images. We demonstrate that the light scattering behavior at the central floor of Occator is different compared to a typical cerean surface and is likely inconsistent with a pure solid surface scatterer. The identified deviation is best explained by an additional component to the scattered light of the surface, i.e., a haze layer. Our results support the water vapor detection by Herschel observations though the existence of a tenuous cerean exosphere is not yet confirmed.
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We mapped all boulders larger than 105 m on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres using images of the Dawn framing camera acquired in the Low Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO). We find that boulders on Ceres are more numerous towards high latitudes and have a maximum lifetime of $150 pm 50$ Ma, based on crater counts. These characteristics are distinctly different from those of boulders on asteroid (4) Vesta, an earlier target of Dawn, which implies that Ceres boulders are mechanically weaker. Clues to their properties can be found in the composition of Ceres complex crust, which is rich in phyllosilicates and salts. As water ice is though to be present only meters below the surface, we suggest that boulders also harbor ice. Furthermore, the boulder size-frequency distribution is best fit by a Weibull distribution rather than the customary power law, just like for Vesta boulders. This finding is robust in light of possible types of size measurement error.
Variations and spatial distributions of bright and dark material on dwarf planet Ceres play a key role in understanding the processes that have led to its present surface composition. We define limits for bright and dark material in order to distinguish them consistently, based on the reflectance of the average surface using Dawn Framing Camera data. A systematic classification of four types of bright material is presented based on their spectral properties, composition, spatial distribution, and association with specific geomorphological features. We found obvious correlations of reflectance with spectral shape (slopes) and age; however, this is not unique throughout the bright spots. Although impact features show generally more extreme reflectance variations, several areas can only be understood in terms of inhomogeneous distribution of composition as inferred from Dawn Visible and Infrared Spectrometer data. Additional material with anomalous composition and spectral properties are rare. The identification of the composition and origin of the dark, particularly the darkest material, remains to be explored. The spectral properties and the morphology of the dark sites suggest an endogenic origin, but it is not clear whether they are more or less primitive surficial exposures or excavated subsurface but localized material. The reflectance, spectral properties, inferred composition, and geologic context collectively suggest that the bright and dark material tends to gradually change toward the average surface over time. This could be because of multiple processes, i.e., impact gardening/space weathering, and lateral mixing, including thermal and aqueous alteration, accompanied by changes in composition and physical properties such as grain size, surface temperature, and porosity (compaction).
In order to investigate the causes of different spectral slope in ccps, different grain-sizes of Ceres analogue mixtures were produced, heated to remove absorption of atmospheric water, and spectrally analyzed. First, the end-members which compose the Ceres surface (using the antigorite as Mg-phyllosilicate, the NH4-montmorillonite as NH4-phyllosilicate, the dolomite as carbonate and the graphite as dark component), were mixed, obtaining mixtures with different relative abundance, and identifying the mixture with the reflectance spectrum most similar to the average Ceres spectrum. The mixtures were obtained with grain size of 0-25 {mu}m, 25-50 mic and 50-100 mic, were heated and spectrally analysed at T= 300 K and T=200 K (typical for surface Ceres temperature during VIR observations). The most similar Ceres analogue mixture is composed of dolomite (18%), graphite (27%), antigorite (32%) and NH4-montmorillonite (29%) and the results of this work suggest that this mixture is more similar to the Ceres youngest region than to the Ceres average, in particular for the negative slope of spectrum. Small variation in the composition and grain size of end-members need to be considered, in addition to the occurrence of a dark component dispersed in fine size. Furthermore, the positive spectral slope that characterizes the mean Ceres spectrum can be obtained by the application of some processes simulating the space weathering on Ceres (as micro-meteoritic impacts and solar wind irradiation), i.e. laser and ion irradiation. As conclusion, youngest ccps on Ceresare probably composed by fresher and weakly processed mixture with fine dark material intimately dispersed: as a result, the reflectance spectra of youngest material show a negative slope in the 1.2-1.9 mic range. The redder slope observed in the older ccps is probably the consequence of the space weathering effects on fresher material
We study the spectrophotometric properties of dwarf planet Ceres in the VIS-IR spectral range by means of hyper-spectral images acquired by the VIR imaging spectrometer on board the NASA Dawn mission. Disk-resolved observations with a phase angle within the $7^{circ}<alpha<132^{circ}$ interval were used to characterize Ceres phase curve in the 0.465-4.05 $mu$m spectral range. Hapkes model was applied to perform the photometric correction of the dataset, allowing us to produce albedo and color maps of the surface. The $V$-band magnitude phase function of Ceres was fitted with both the classical linear model and H-G formalism. The single-scattering albedo and the asymmetry parameter at 0.55$mu$m are $w=0.14pm0.02$ and $xi=-0.11pm0.08$, respectively (two-lobe Henyey-Greenstein phase function); the modeled geometric albedo is $0.094pm0.007$; the roughness parameter is $bar{theta}=29^{circ}pm6^{circ}$. Albedo maps indicate small variability on a global scale with an average reflectance of $0.034 pm 0.003$. Isolated areas such as the Occator bright spots, Haulani, and Oxo show an albedo much higher than average. We measure a significant spectral phase reddening, and the average spectral slope of Ceres surface after photometric correction is $1.1%kAA^{-1}$ and $0.85%kAA^{-1}$ at VIS and IR wavelengths, respectively. Broadband color indices are $V-R=0.38pm0.01$ and $R-I=0.33pm0.02$. H-G modeling of the $V$-band magnitude phase curve for $alpha<30^{circ}$ gives $H=3.14pm0.04$ and $G=0.10pm0.04$, while the classical linear model provides $V(1,1,0^{circ})=3.48pm0.03$ and $beta=0.036pm0.002$. The comparison with spectrophotometric properties of other minor bodies indicates that Ceres has a less back-scattering phase function and a slightly higher albedo than comets and C-type objects. However, the latter represents the closest match in the usual asteroid taxonomy.
The largest moon of Neptune, Triton, possess a cold and hazy atmosphere. Since the discovery of near-surface haze layer during the Voyager fly in 1989, the haze formation mechanism has not been investigated in detail. Here, we provide the first haze microphysical model on Triton. Our model solves the evolution of both size and porosity distributions of haze particles in a self-consistent manner. We simulated the formation of sphere and aggregate hazes with and without condensation of the C$_2$H$_4$ ice. The haze particles can grow into fractal aggregates with mass-equivalent sphere sizes of $sim0.1$--$1~{rm {mu}m}$ and fractal dimension of $D_{rm f} = 1.8$--$2.2$. The ice-free hazes cannot simultaneously explain both UV and visible observations of Voyager 2, while including the condensation of C$_2$H$_4$ ices provides two better solutions. For ice aggregates, the required total haze mass flux is $sim2times{10}^{-15}~{rm g~{cm}^{-2}~s^{-1}}$. For the icy sphere scenario, the column integrated C$_2$H$_4$ production rate is $sim8times{10}^{-15}~{rm g~{cm}^{-2}~s^{-1}}$, and the ice-free mass flux of $sim6times{10}^{-17}~{rm g~{cm}^{-2}~s^{-1}}$. The UV occultation observations at short wavelength $<0.15~{rm {mu}m}$ may slightly favor the icy aggregates. Observations of the haze optical depth and the degree of forward scattering in UV and visible should be able to distinguish whether Tritons hazes are icy spheres or ice aggregates in future Triton missions.
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