Postdoctoral Fellowship: AAPF: The Texture, Composition, and Evolution of Asteroids Ceres and Hygiea

Maria Camarca is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The dwarf planet Ceres is the largest member of the main asteroid belt. A close study of its mineralogy indicates it may have formed beyond the orbit of Neptune, and then migrated inward – potentially with other companions. Camarca will use ground-based observations to investigate why Ceres lacks an associated asteroid family, and whether the asteroid Hygiea may share a similar migration history. The project will connect with elder living facilities near the observatory to create engaging, edifying, and friendly astronomical outreach events for the residents. Camarca will use radio interferometry and infrared spectroscopy to analyze the minor planet Ceres and the asteroid Hygiea. These observations will help to clarify the origin of Ceres’ missing family by determining whether the texture of Ceres’ impact ejecta are consistent with a volatile loss texture predicted from laboratory experiments. To this end, Camarca will create a global map of Ceres’ thermophysical properties based on observations from ALMA. Camarca will then constrain the compositional similarity between Hygiea and Ceres by targeting subsurface materials in the newly discovered impacts on Hygiea. This project will develop a framework that connects laboratory mineralogy and ground-based remote sensing that can be applied to other asteroids and will ultimately advance the understanding of how early planetary migration influences the chemical and thermal evolution of small bodies in the Solar System. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.