SUMMARY: CERES DEFIED PRE-DAWN MISSION PREDICTIONS BY PRESENTING A MORE COMPLICATED GEOLOGIC HISTORY THAN EXPECTED THROWING MANY HYPOTHESES ON ITS ORIGIN AND FORMATION BACK FOR RECONSIDERATION. CURRENT CERES DATA SUGGEST A LIKELY DIFFERENTIATED DWARF PLANET WITH A STRONG LITHOSPHERE (ALTHOUGH STILL ICE-RICH) WITH SIGNS OF GEOLOGICAL ACTIVITY INCLUDING EVIDENCE OF RESURFACING BRIGHT SALT DEPOSITS AND POTENTIAL CRYOVOLCANISM; DAWN CONTINUES TO STUDY THESE INTRIGUING REGIONS WITH NEWER LOW ALTITUDE MAPPING ORBIT DATA. THIS PROPOSED PROJECT SEEKS TO USE THE DAWN HIGH ALTITUDE MAPPING ORBIT (HAMO) DATA ALREADY AVAILABLE IN THE PDS TO ANALYZE THE DOMES MOUNDS AND DOMAL UPLIFT REGIONS (AND ASSOCIATED GEOLOGIC FEATURES) ON CERES TO CONSTRAIN THE VOLUME DEPTH AND GENERAL GEOMETRY OF THE SUBSURFACE MASS MIGRATION THAT CREATED THEM. IN GENERAL THESE DOMES AND UPLIFT REGIONS SHOW MORPHOMETRIC SIGNATURES SIMILAR TO BOTH SALT DOMING AND MAGMATIC PLUME TECTONICS SUGGESTING SIMILAR TERRESTRIAL ANALYSES CAN BE PERFORMED TO CONSTRAIN THE UNDERLYING THICKNESS OF THE DEFORMED UNIT AND THUS PROVIDE AN ESTIMATE OF DEPTH TO THE MOBILE MATERIAL. IN THIS STUDY WE ARE AGNOSTIC TO THE COMPOSITION OF THE MOBILE MATERIAL AS DUCTILE SOLIDS SUCH AS SALT AND SLUSHY LIQUIDS SUCH AS CRYOMAGMA ACT IN GEOPHYSICALLY SIMILAR WAYS IN THE SUBSURFACE AND CREATE SIMILAR SURFACE DEFORMATION PATTERNS. INSTEAD THIS PROJECT FOCUSES ON THE SURFACE DEFORMATION FEATURES SUCH AS FRACTURE PATTERNS AND SLOPES THAT IN TURN PROVIDE CONSTRAINTS ON THE UNDERLYING GEOMETRY OF THE SUBSURFACE MOBILE MATERIAL AND THE VOLUME OF DISPLACED ROCK ABOVE. DOMICAL FEATURES HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED NEARLY GLOBALLY BUT NOT UNIFORMLY ON CERES; THIS PROJECT WOULD EXTEND CURRENT UNDERSTANDING INTO THE SUBSURFACE TO PROVIDE A MORE ROBUST REGIONAL-TO-GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING OF THESE UPLIFT FEATURES. PROJECT RESULTS WOULD PROVIDE CONSTRAINTS SEVERAL HYPOTHESES REGARDING THE GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE PLANET.
$333,901FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio TX