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Exploring Potential Water-Ice Occurrence On Asteroid 4 Vesta Using Orbital Radar Observations By The Dawn Mission, Elizabeth M. Palmer

Dissertations

Airless, differentiated planetesimals in the inner solar system were presumed to have been depleted of most of their initial volatile content during formation. However, water-ice has been discovered at the lunar poles (Li et al., 2018), is inferred to exist in polar craters on Mercury (e.g., Butler, Slade & Muhleman, 1993, and suggested to survive beneath the dusty regolith of objects in the main asteroid belt if buried at sufficient depths—at least one meter for small-bodies in the outer main-belt (Schorghofer, 2008). Hence, the study of volatile occurrence, past or present, on airless, desiccated small-bodies provides insights into the timing, …