[ad_1]
(NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA)
Nothing is normal about Ceres, let alone about its mud volcanoes.
In a new research published in Astronomy of nature, a large team of astronomers presented a new, strange worldview of our solar system. It seems that Ceres has experienced billions of years of activity, including random volcanic jets, but of a type not seen anywhere else in the solar system.
Ceres is the largest world of the asteroid belt and is considered as a remaining proto-planet, or the kind of small worlds that have served as the basis for the planets we see today. There is ample evidence that Ceres may once have had a frozen ocean and the tantalizing clues of a geologically active history.
Ceres even seems to have a form of volcanism. There are two types of volcanism in the solar system, usually: the types of magmatic eruptions observed on Earth and the moon of Jupiter Io, where the heated rock rises from the heart to the surface. And then, there is the type of volcanism observed on Europa and Enceladus, where large expanses of icy water erupt. Scientists call this cryovolcanism.
Ceres mud volcanoes
Hanna Sizemore, research scientist and author of the journal Planetary Science Institute, says that Ceres volcanoes are a strange mixture of both. "The big difference on Ceres is that you're in this hybrid between the internal rock system and the frozen outdoor solar system," she says. This means that although water may be a driving mechanism for volcanoes, the actual material could include rock, salt and heated materials from within Ceres, which is both a rocky and icy world . When these volcanoes explode, "it would probably look like an extrusion of lava on the earth, but it would be mud that would escape from cracks or cracks on the surface," says Sizemore.
Sizemore says that a new cryovolcano appears on Ceres about once every 50 million years, as indicated by data from the Dawn spacecraft, which has been circling around Ceres for about three years. The craft has seen a series of "domes" that dot the world and have similar proportions to those of the mountains, but consist of ice that has settled since the end of their period of volcanic activity, leveling them a little.
These high resolution images show the mysterious bright spots of Ceres. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA)
Origin of the light points
And these famous bright spots on Ceres could also be some of the most recent areas of cryovolcanism. The shine is caused by significant salt deposits, which should come from below. According to Sizemore, it may also be that we missed a little (geologically speaking) eruption, "a few hundred to millions" of years.
So what is causing it? Sizemore says one of the team's suspicions is that the impact took place long ago in Ceres' coat. This could be a point of contact between the surface and warmer materials near the core, which could still be geologically active today. "To a certain extent, we do not fully understand the mechanisms to maintain the heat in these icy bodies," she says, pointing out other icy worlds that should be dead but that seem rather active, like Pluto.
In fact, there are many unknowns about all of this, but this new study at least starts the conversation.
"Our main question is where does the heat come from, which can mobilize these materials," says Sizemore. "Frankly, we do not know the answer to that question. This is an area that opens. This idea of cryovolcanism has been viewed with skepticism over time. But now the field of research is booming. Yet, even if we understand cryovolcanism on other worlds, it is unlikely that anything we find is like Ceres.
Source link
