Extensive water ice within Ceres’ aqueously altered regolith: Evidence from nuclear spectroscopy
Résumé
Water ice beneath the surface of Ceres The dwarf planet Ceres in the inner solar system is thought to have a crust made of a mixture of rock and ice. Prettyman et al. used neutron and gamma-ray spectroscopy from the Dawn spacecraft to peer below Ceres' surface and map the subsurface composition. They found evidence for water ice across the dwarf planet, with water making up a larger fraction of the material near the poles than around the equator. Together with their measurements of other elements, these results aid our understanding of Ceres' composition and constrain models of its formation. Science , this issue p. 55