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› Full SizePitted Terrain on Mars and Vesta
A distinctive "pitted terrain” observed by NASA's Dawn mission on Vesta has also been seen on Mars. The morphologies of pits are similar on both bodies, with irregular shapes and sharp angles where pits share walls. The first image on the left shows the floor of a Martian crater called Tooting, which is 17 miles (28 kilometers) in diameter. The middle image shows the floor of a Martian crater called Zunil, which is about 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter. The image on the right shows the floor of Marcia crater on Vesta, which is 40 miles (70 kilometers) in diameter.The two Mars images were obtained by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Vesta image was obtained by Dawn's framing camera.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/MPS/DLR/IDA/JHUAPL
The animation from NASA's Dawn mission
shows abundances of hydrogen in a wide swath around the equator of the
giant asteroid Vesta. › Download video
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› Full SizeHydrogen Map of Vesta
This map from NASA's Dawn mission shows the global distribution of hydrogen on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. The hydrogen detected by Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector instrument likely exists in the form of hydroxyl or water bound to minerals, not as water ice.Scientists thought it might be possible for water ice to survive near the surface around the giant asteroid's poles. But the strongest signature for hydrogen came from regions near the equator, where water ice is not stable.
The abundance of hydrogen is displayed on a rainbow color scale. Red indicates the greatest abundances of hydrogen; violet indicates the least. The units are micrograms of hydrogen per gram of surface material. One set of dotted lines indicates the outline of the largest impact basin on Vesta known as Rheasilvia. The second largest impact basin, Veneneia, is outlined with the other dotted line. Marcia crater is indicated with an X.
The map is a cylindrical projection spanning 360 degrees of longitude. The hydrogen data, obtained in Dawn's lowest mapping orbit from December 2011 to May 2012, are superimposed on a shaded relief map of Vesta made from data from Dawn's framing camera. Dawn arrived at Vesta in July 2011 and departed in September 2012.
Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. The gamma ray and neutron detector instrument was built by Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., and is operated by the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz.
More information about the Dawn mission is online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/dawn
and
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/PSI/MPS/DLR/IDA
NASA Dawn Spacecraft Sees Hydrated Minerals on Giant Asteroid
WASHINGTON
-- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed the giant asteroid Vesta has its
own version of ring around the collar. Two new papers, based on
observations from the low-altitude mapping orbit of the Dawn mission,
show volatile, or easily evaporated, materials have colored Vesta's
surface in a broad swath around its equator.
The volatiles were released from minerals likely containing water. Pothole-like features mark some of the asteroid's surface where the volatiles boiled off. Dawn did not find actual water ice at Vesta. However, it found evidence of hydrated minerals delivered by meteorites and dust in the giant asteroid's chemistry and geology. The findings appear Thursday in the journal Science.
One paper, led by Thomas Prettyman, the lead scientist for Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND) at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., describes how the instrument found signatures of hydrogen, likely in the form of hydroxyl or water bound to minerals in Vesta's surface.
"The source of the hydrogen within Vesta's surface appears to be hydrated minerals delivered by carbon-rich space rocks that collided with Vesta at speeds slow enough to preserve their volatile content," said Prettyman.
A complementary paper, led by Brett Denevi, a Dawn participating scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., describes the presence of pitted terrain created by the release of the volatiles.
Vesta is the second most massive member of our solar system's main asteroid belt. Dawn was orbiting at an average altitude of about 130 miles (210 kilometers) above the surface when it obtained the data. Dawn left Vesta on Sept. 5 EDT (Sept. 4) and is on its way to a second target, the dwarf planet Ceres.
Scientists thought it might be possible for water ice to survive near the surface around the giant asteroid's poles. Unlike Earth's moon, however, Vesta has no permanently shadowed polar regions where ice might survive. The strongest signature for hydrogen in the latest data came from regions near the equator, where water ice is not stable.
In some cases, space rocks crashed into these deposits at high speed. The heat from the collisions converted the hydrogen bound to the minerals into water, which evaporated. Escaping water left holes as much as six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) wide and as deep as 700 feet (200 meters). Seen in images from Dawn's framing camera, this pitted terrain is best preserved in sections of Marcia crater.
"The pits look just like features seen on Mars, and while water was common on Mars, it was totally unexpected on Vesta in these high abundances," said Denevi. "These results provide evidence that not only were hydrated materials present, but they played an important role in shaping the asteroid's geology and the surface we see today."
GRaND's data are the first direct measurements describing the elemental composition of Vesta's surface. Dawn's elemental investigation by the instrument determined the ratios of iron to oxygen and iron to silicon in the surface materials. The new findings solidly confirm the connection between Vesta and a class of meteorites found on Earth called the Howardite, Eucrite and Diogenite meteorites, which have the same ratios for these elements. In addition, more volatile-rich fragments of other objects have been identified in these meteorites, which supports the idea the volatile-rich material was deposited on Vesta.
The Dawn mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft is as a project of the Discovery Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall mission science. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft.
The framing cameras that saw the pitted terrain were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with contributions by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by NASA, the Max Planck Society and DLR. The gamma ray and neutron detector instrument was built by Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., and is operated by the Planetary Science Institute.
To view new images and for more information about Dawn, visit:
The volatiles were released from minerals likely containing water. Pothole-like features mark some of the asteroid's surface where the volatiles boiled off. Dawn did not find actual water ice at Vesta. However, it found evidence of hydrated minerals delivered by meteorites and dust in the giant asteroid's chemistry and geology. The findings appear Thursday in the journal Science.
One paper, led by Thomas Prettyman, the lead scientist for Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND) at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., describes how the instrument found signatures of hydrogen, likely in the form of hydroxyl or water bound to minerals in Vesta's surface.
"The source of the hydrogen within Vesta's surface appears to be hydrated minerals delivered by carbon-rich space rocks that collided with Vesta at speeds slow enough to preserve their volatile content," said Prettyman.
A complementary paper, led by Brett Denevi, a Dawn participating scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., describes the presence of pitted terrain created by the release of the volatiles.
Vesta is the second most massive member of our solar system's main asteroid belt. Dawn was orbiting at an average altitude of about 130 miles (210 kilometers) above the surface when it obtained the data. Dawn left Vesta on Sept. 5 EDT (Sept. 4) and is on its way to a second target, the dwarf planet Ceres.
Scientists thought it might be possible for water ice to survive near the surface around the giant asteroid's poles. Unlike Earth's moon, however, Vesta has no permanently shadowed polar regions where ice might survive. The strongest signature for hydrogen in the latest data came from regions near the equator, where water ice is not stable.
In some cases, space rocks crashed into these deposits at high speed. The heat from the collisions converted the hydrogen bound to the minerals into water, which evaporated. Escaping water left holes as much as six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) wide and as deep as 700 feet (200 meters). Seen in images from Dawn's framing camera, this pitted terrain is best preserved in sections of Marcia crater.
"The pits look just like features seen on Mars, and while water was common on Mars, it was totally unexpected on Vesta in these high abundances," said Denevi. "These results provide evidence that not only were hydrated materials present, but they played an important role in shaping the asteroid's geology and the surface we see today."
GRaND's data are the first direct measurements describing the elemental composition of Vesta's surface. Dawn's elemental investigation by the instrument determined the ratios of iron to oxygen and iron to silicon in the surface materials. The new findings solidly confirm the connection between Vesta and a class of meteorites found on Earth called the Howardite, Eucrite and Diogenite meteorites, which have the same ratios for these elements. In addition, more volatile-rich fragments of other objects have been identified in these meteorites, which supports the idea the volatile-rich material was deposited on Vesta.
The Dawn mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft is as a project of the Discovery Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall mission science. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft.
The framing cameras that saw the pitted terrain were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with contributions by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by NASA, the Max Planck Society and DLR. The gamma ray and neutron detector instrument was built by Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., and is operated by the Planetary Science Institute.
To view new images and for more information about Dawn, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/dawn
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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