Timing of optical maturation of recently exposed material on Ceres

Abstract

Abstract On Ceres, multispectral imaging data from the Dawn spacecraft show a distinct bluish characteristic for recently exposed material from the subsurface in, for example, crater ejecta. Ejecta blankets of presumably old craters show a more reddish spectrum. We selected areas in which fresh material from the Cerean subsurface was exposed at a specific time in the past, and no later geologic process is expected to have changed its surface composition or its cratering record. For each area, we determined two color ratios and the crater retention age. The measured color ratios show an exponential diminishment of the bluish characteristic over time. Although the cause of the color change remains uncertain, the time‐dependent change in spectral properties is evident, which could help identify the process.