UT Austin: Insulating Crust Kept Shallow Melt Reservoir Liquid

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

UT Austin: Insulating Crust Kept Shallow Melt Reservoir Liquid

Post by bystander » Mon Feb 18, 2019 5:48 pm

Insulating Crust Kept Shallow Melt Reservoir Liquid
for Millions of Years on Nearby Dwarf Planet, Ceres

Jackson School of Geosciences | University of Texas, Austin | 2019 Feb 13
A recent NASA mission to the dwarf planet Ceres found brilliant, white spots of salts on its surface. New research led by The University of Texas at Austin in partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) delved into the factors that influenced the volcanic activity that formed the distinctive spots and that could play a key role in mixing the ingredients for life on other worlds.

The volcanoes on Ceres are cryovolcanoes, a type of volcano that forms on planetary bodies with icy shells and that moves salty water known as cryomagma from underground reservoirs to the surface. Scientists think that cryovolcanoes on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could help foster chemical mixing that could make complex molecules needed for life. Learning more about how these volcanoes work on Ceres—which is a simpler geological environment than Europa—could help scientists get a handle on the primary forces that drive their activity.

“Cryovolcanism looks to be a really important system as we look for life,” said lead author Marc Hesse, an associate professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. “So we’re trying to understand these ice shells and how they behave.” ...

Thermal Evolution of the Impact‐Induced Cryomagma Chamber Beneath Occator Crater on Ceres ~ M.A. Hesse, J.C. Castillo-Rogez
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Post Reply