Ceres and the Terrestrial Planets Impact Cratering Record

TL;DR

This study analyzes Ceres' crater record, revealing that its surface's impact history reflects early Solar System bombardment, with implications for the origin of the Late Heavy Bombardment impactor population.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of Ceres' crater record with lunar and planetary surfaces, linking impact history to Main Belt Asteroids.

Findings

Ceres' crater size-frequency distribution is similar to ancient planetary surfaces.

The heavily cratered region on Ceres records early impact rates.

Ceres' impact record supports a Main Belt Asteroid origin for the LHB.

Abstract

Dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the Main Asteroid Belt, has a surface that exhibits a range of crater densities for a crater diameter range of 5-300 km. In all areas the shape of the craters' size-frequency distribution is very similar to those of the most ancient heavily cratered surfaces on the terrestrial planets. The most heavily cratered terrain on Ceres covers ~15% of its surface and has a crater density similar to the highest crater density on <1% of the lunar highlands. This region of higher crater density on Ceres probably records the high impact rate at early times and indicates that the other 85% of Ceres was partly resurfaced after the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) at ~4 Ga. The Ceres cratering record strongly indicates that the period of Late Heavy Bombardment originated from an impactor population whose size-frequency distribution resembles that of the Main Belt Asteroids.