Active Geology on Ceres

[Unclear Engineer]

Found this article interesting about the heat from radioactive element decay apparently being enough to heat the interior of Ceres and create observable geologic surface effects.

Modeling reveals how dwarf planet Ceres powers unexpected geologic activity

For a long time, our view of Ceres was fuzzy, according to a geoscientist. A dwarf planet and the largest body found in the asteroid belt -- the region between Jupiter and Mars speckled with hundreds of thousands of asteroids -- Ceres had no distinguishable surface features in existing...

www.sciencedaily.com

 

[Catastrophe]

It is worth pointing out that Ceres is by far the largest 'asteroid' in the asteroid belt, witness the fact that it has been designated as a dwarf planet. Ceres is more akin to objects found beyond Neptune such as Pluto and Eris.


Strange dwarf planet Ceres may have formed at the icy edges ...
https://www.space.com › News › Science & Astronomy

18 Mar 2022 — The dwarf planet Ceres is located in the asteroid belt but looks nothing like its neighbors. In a new paper, scientists propose an ...

 

[Helio]

Recent news of the SN about 4.6 billion years ago, and the level of isotopes found in "dust" makes this story a little more interesting. Not that I understand it clearly. But it's also a story about convection.

Lord Kelvin, from temperature gradients taken in deep mines, calculated an age of about 20 million years for the Earth. Coincidentally, the gravitational energy for the Sun's collapse yielded a similar time-frame, so this idea stuck to the wall, but not for that long. Better data had Kelvin giving roughly a 100 million age for Earth. [This was far too short, however, for Darwin, who called Kelvin an "odious specter". ] It was Rutherford who gave a careful speech in England, with the mighty Lord Kelvin in attendance, explaining why Kelvin was wrong. Radioactive decay bumped all the estimates.

But convection plays a major role on why Kelvin's data was hotter than expected, not just radioactivity.

 

[Catastrophe]

On the question of Ceres, and how far out in the Solar System it was formed:

Does dark matter have any influence? Vide:

Powerful cosmic explosions left abundant stardust in our solar system | Page 2 | Space.com Forums

I appreciate that DM itself does not have different isotopes, but does its gravitational influence, perhaps, influence isotope distributions at different locations within the SS? What is the DM distribution within the SS like - do we know?

Cat

 

[Helio]

On the question of Ceres, and how far out in the Solar System it was formed:

Does dark matter have any influence?

Interesting question. DM would have been present in the original cloud, if only in a small amount perhaps.

But if so, where did it go. The accuracy of today's models for the solar system include no DM, so if any is around, it's not enough to amount to much.

I appreciate that DM itself does not have different isotopes, but does its gravitational influence, perhaps, influence isotope distributions at different locations within the SS? What is the DM distribution within the SS like - do we know?

IMO, there is still optimism that the WIMP will be found for DM. When this happens, lots of things will come forward, no doubt. I doubt DM is considered to have much effect on isotope distributions, at least until more is known.

 

[Catastrophe]

Active Geology on Ceres

Back on topic

Radioactive heat in Ceres drove dwarf planet's geology | Space

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Cat