Extensive water ice within Ceres' aqueously altered regolith: Evidence from nuclear spectroscopy

The surface elemental composition of dwarf planet Ceres constrains its regolith ice content, aqueous alteration processes, and interior evolution. Using nuclear spectroscopy data acquired by NASA's Dawn mission, we determined the concentrations of elemental hydrogen, iron, and potassium on Ceres. The data show that surface materials were processed by the action of water within the interior. The non-icy portion of Ceres' carbon-bearing regolith contains similar amounts of hydrogen to those present in aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrites; however, the concentration of iron on Ceres is lower than in the aforementioned chondrites. This allows for the possibility that Ceres experienced modest ice-rock fractionation, resulting in differences between surface and bulk composition. At mid-to-high latitudes, the regolith contains high concentrations of hydrogen, consistent with broad expanses of water ice, confirming theoretical predictions that ice can survive for billions of years just beneath the surface.

A new analysis of Mars "Special Regions": findings of the second MEPAG Special Regions Science Analysis Group (SR-SAG2)

A committee of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) has reviewed and updated the description of Special Regions on Mars as places where terrestrial organisms might replicate (per the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy). This review and update was conducted by an international team (SR-SAG2) drawn from both the biological science and Mars exploration communities, focused on understanding when and where Special Regions could occur. The study applied recently available data about martian environments and about terrestrial organisms, building on a previous analysis of Mars Special Regions (2006) undertaken by a similar team. Since then, a new body of highly relevant information has been generated from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (launched in 2005) and Phoenix (2007) and data from Mars Express and the twin Mars Exploration Rovers (all 2003). Results have also been gleaned from the Mars Science Laboratory (launched in 2011). In addition to Mars data, there is a considerable body of new data regarding the known environmental limits to life on Earth-including the potential for terrestrial microbial life to survive and replicate under martian environmental conditions. The SR-SAG2 analysis has included an examination of new Mars models relevant to natural environmental variation in water activity and temperature; a review and reconsideration of the current parameters used to define Special Regions; and updated maps and descriptions of the martian environments recommended for treatment as "Uncertain" or "Special" as natural features or those potentially formed by the influence of future landed spacecraft. Significant changes in our knowledge of the capabilities of terrestrial organisms and the existence of possibly habitable martian environments have led to a new appreciation of where Mars Special Regions may be identified and protected. The SR-SAG also considered the impact of Special Regions on potential future human missions to Mars, both as locations of potential resources and as places that should not be inadvertently contaminated by human activity.

Constraints on Vesta's elemental composition: Fast neutron measurements by Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector

Surface composition information from Vesta is reported using fast neutron data collected by the gamma ray and neutron detector on the Dawn spacecraft. After correcting for variations due to hydrogen, fast neutrons show a compositional dynamic range and spatial variability that is consistent with variations in average atomic mass from howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites. These data provide additional compositional evidence that Vesta is the parent body to HED meteorites. A subset of fast neutron data having lower statistical precision show spatial variations that are consistent with a 400 ppm variability in hydrogen concentrations across Vesta and supports the idea that Vesta's hydrogen is due to long-term delivery of carbonaceous chondrite material.

Evidence for water ice near Mercury's north pole from MESSENGER Neutron Spectrometer measurements

Measurements by the Neutron Spectrometer on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft show decreases in the flux of epithermal and fast neutrons from Mercury's north polar region that are consistent with the presence of water ice in permanently shadowed regions. The neutron data indicate that Mercury's radar-bright polar deposits contain, on average, a hydrogen-rich layer more than tens of centimeters thick beneath a surficial layer 10 to 30 cm thick that is less rich in hydrogen. Combined neutron and radar data are best matched if the buried layer consists of nearly pure water ice. The upper layer contains less than 25 weight % water-equivalent hydrogen. The total mass of water at Mercury's poles is inferred to be 2 × 10(16) to 10(18) grams and is consistent with delivery by comets or volatile-rich asteroids.

Elemental mapping by Dawn reveals exogenic H in Vesta's regolith

Using Dawn's Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector, we tested models of Vesta's evolution based on studies of howardite, eucrite, and diogenite (HED) meteorites. Global Fe/O and Fe/Si ratios are consistent with HED compositions. Neutron measurements confirm that a thick, diogenitic lower crust is exposed in the Rheasilvia basin, which is consistent with global magmatic differentiation. Vesta's regolith contains substantial amounts of hydrogen. The highest hydrogen concentrations coincide with older, low-albedo regions near the equator, where water ice is unstable. The young, Rheasilvia basin contains the lowest concentrations. These observations are consistent with gradual accumulation of hydrogen by infall of carbonaceous chondrites--observed as clasts in some howardites--and subsequent removal or burial of this material by large impacts.

Performance of orbital neutron instruments for spatially resolved hydrogen measurements of airless planetary bodies

Orbital neutron spectroscopy has become a standard technique for measuring planetary surface compositions from orbit. While this technique has led to important discoveries, such as the deposits of hydrogen at the Moon and Mars, a limitation is its poor spatial resolution. For omni-directional neutron sensors, spatial resolutions are 1-1.5 times the spacecraft's altitude above the planetary surface (or 40-600 km for typical orbital altitudes). Neutron sensors with enhanced spatial resolution have been proposed, and one with a collimated field of view is scheduled to fly on a mission to measure lunar polar hydrogen. No quantitative studies or analyses have been published that evaluate in detail the detection and sensitivity limits of spatially resolved neutron measurements. Here, we describe two complementary techniques for evaluating the hydrogen sensitivity of spatially resolved neutron sensors: an analytic, closed-form expression that has been validated with Lunar Prospector neutron data, and a three-dimensional modeling technique. The analytic technique, called the Spatially resolved Neutron Analytic Sensitivity Approximation (SNASA), provides a straightforward method to evaluate spatially resolved neutron data from existing instruments as well as to plan for future mission scenarios. We conclude that the existing detector--the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND)--scheduled to launch on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will have hydrogen sensitivities that are over an order of magnitude poorer than previously estimated. We further conclude that a sensor with a geometric factor of approximately 100 cm(2) Sr (compared to the LEND geometric factor of approximately 10.9 cm(2) Sr) could make substantially improved measurements of the lunar polar hydrogen spatial distribution.

Dynamics of ice ages on Mars

Unlike Earth, where astronomical climate forcing is comparatively small, Mars experiences dramatic changes in incident sunlight that are capable of redistributing ice on a global scale. The geographic extent of the subsurface ice found poleward of approximately +/-60 degrees latitude on both hemispheres of Mars coincides with the areas where ice is stable. However, the tilt of Mars' rotation axis (obliquity) changed considerably in the past several million years. Earlier work has shown that regions of ice stability, which are defined by temperature and atmospheric humidity, differed in the recent past from today's, and subsurface ice is expected to retreat quickly when unstable. Here I explain how the subsurface ice sheets could have evolved to the state in which we see them today. Simulations of the retreat and growth of ground ice as a result of sublimation loss and recharge reveal forty major ice ages over the past five million years. Today, this gives rise to pore ice at mid-latitudes and a three-layered depth distribution in the high latitudes of, from top to bottom, a dry layer, pore ice, and a massive ice sheet. Combined, these layers provide enough ice to be compatible with existing neutron and gamma-ray measurements.