Projectiles That Slam Into Ceres Tend to Stick Say Researchers

Posted on October 17, 2015

New research suggests that much of the material that has struck the dwarf planet Ceres in high-impact collisions has ended up stuck there. Researchers from Brown University say Ceres may be "something of a cosmic dartboard." It is likely home to billions of years worth of meteorite material that has stuck to it after high-speed collisions.

Scientists at Brown University conducted high-velocity impact experiments using the Vertical Gun Range at NASA's Ames Research Center. The gun range contains a cannon with a 14-foot barrel that can launch projectiles at up to 16,000 miles per hour. The experiments suggest that when asteroids and other impactors hit Ceres much of the material remains on the surface instead of bouncing off into space.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt and the nearest dwarf planet to Earth. Recent observations from the Dawn spacecraft show Ceres to be mysteriously low in density. It is made either of a very porous silicate material or possibly contains a large layer of water ice. The scientists say observations of its surface are remarkable for being so unremarkable.

Terik Daly, a Ph.D. student at Brown and the study's lead author, says in a statement, "It's really bland in the telescopic observations. It's like someone took a single color of spray paint and sprayed the whole thing. When we think about what might have caused this homogeneous surface, our thoughts turn to impact processes."

Here is a video where researchers simulated collisions into an icy body at the NASA Vertical Gun Range. Much of the dark impact material remains in the impact crater.

A research paper on the study was published here in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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