Several lines of evidence indicate that ceres is a water-rich world. On theoretical grounds, shallow ICE is predicted to be present at depths of 10-100 M near the equator and less than 1-10 M at…

This is a $295,959.11 grant awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), a non-profit research organization, to conduct a three-year research effort to search for evidence of shallow ice on the dwarf planet Ceres. The research tasks involve global mapping and characterization of surface features indicative of subsurface ice, such as sublimation terrains, polygonal patterned ground, and domed hills. The findings will be correlated with data from NASA's Ceres spacecraft mission to enhance the understanding of Ceres' potential habitability. This grant award is not associated with a set-aside contract and reflects PSI's expertise in planetary science research.

Several lines of evidence indicate that ceres is a water-rich world. On theoretical grounds, shallow ICE is predicted to be present at depths of 10-100 M near the equator and less than 1-10 M at latitudes greater than 40O, if no endogenic processes resupply the surface with H2O from the deep interior. The proposed work effort is designed to test the prediction that water ICE is present in the upper meters to 10S of meters over a significant portion of the surface of dwarf planet ceres by identifying and characterizing three types of surface morphology that are diagnostic of the presence of shallow ICE on mars and elsewhere in the solar system. The primary research tasks of this three-year research effort are to: (1) conduct a global search for sublimation terrains, characterize them, and map trends in their occurrence. (2) conduct targeted searches for polygonal patterned ground and domed hills. (3) correlate geographic distribution of periglacial features identified in tasks 1 and 2 with global maps of subsurface hydrogen derived from the gamma RAY and neutron detector (GRAND) and global surface composition maps derived from the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR). This work will enhance planned global mapping of ceres morphology by employing global analysis strategies that are well tested in studies of martian ground ICE. The proposed work will give insight into the age of subsurface ICE even if no overt signs of deep interior activity (tectonic rifts, large-scale topography, chaos regions, active outgassing) are observed. The results of this work will also bear on the potential habitability of ceres.