Origin of ammoniated phyllosilicates on dwarf planet Ceres and asteroids

Santosh K. Singh, Alexandre Bergantini, Cheng Zhu, Marco Ferrari, Maria Cristina Sanctis, Simone Angelis and Ralf I. Kaiser ()
Additional contact information
Santosh K. Singh: University of Hawaii
Alexandre Bergantini: University of Hawaii
Cheng Zhu: University of Hawaii
Marco Ferrari: Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, INAF
Maria Cristina Sanctis: Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, INAF
Simone Angelis: Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, INAF
Ralf I. Kaiser: University of Hawaii

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The surface mineralogy of dwarf planet Ceres is rich in ammonium (NH4+) bearing phyllosilicates. However, the origin and formation mechanisms of ammoniated phyllosilicates on Ceres’s surface are still elusive. Here we report on laboratory simulation experiments under astrophysical conditions mimicking Ceres’ physical and chemical environments with the goal to better understand the source of ammoniated minerals on Ceres’ surface. We observe that thermally driven proton exchange reactions between phyllosilicates and ammonia (NH3) could trigger at low temperature leading to the genesis of ammoniated-minerals. Our study revealed the thermal (300 K) and radiation stability of ammoniated-phyllosilicates over a timescale of at least some 500 million years. The present experimental investigations corroborate the possibility that Ceres formed at a location where ammonia ices on the surface would have been stable. However, the possibility of Ceres’ origin near to its current location by accreting ammonia-rich material cannot be excluded.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23011-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-23011-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23011-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().