Water ice, abundant in the outer solar system, is volatile in the inner solar system. On the
largest airless bodies of the inner solar system (Mercury, the Moon, Ceres), water can be an …

Abstract The Lucy Mission is a NASA Discovery-class mission to send a highly capable and
robust spacecraft to investigate seven primitive bodies near both the L 4 and L 5 Lagrange …

Asteroid (162173) Ryugu is the target object of Hayabusa2, an asteroid exploration and
sample return mission led by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Ground-based …

In order to improve our understanding of the interior structure of Saturn's small moon
Enceladus, we reanalyze radiometric tracking and onboard imaging data acquired by the …

The surface mineralogy of dwarf planet Ceres appears to be dominated by products of rock–
fluid interactions, such as phyllosilicates—some of which are NH4-bearing—and …

Occator Crater on dwarf planet Ceres hosts the so-called faculae, several areas with
material 5 to 10 times the albedo of the average Ceres surface: Cerealia Facula, the …

We present a high-resolution global shape model of Ceres determined using the
stereophotoclinometry technique developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory by processing …

Carbonaceous chondrites (CCs) are important materials for understanding the early
evolution of the solar system and delivery of volatiles and organic material to the early Earth …

Before acquiring highest-resolution data of Ceres, questions remained about the
emplacement mechanism and source of Occator crater's bright faculae. Here we report that …

Abstract Vinalia and Cerealia Faculae are bright and salt-rich localized areas in Occator
crater on Ceres. The predominance of the near-infrared signature of sodium carbonate on …