A&A 535, A43 (2011) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201116563 & c ESO 2011 Astrophysics Constraining Ceres’ interior from its rotational motion N. Rambaux1,2, J. Castillo-Rogez3, V. Dehant4, and P. Kuchynka2,3 1 Université Pierre et Marie Curie, UPMC–Paris 06, France e-mail: [nicolas.rambaux;kuchynka]@imcce.fr 2 IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS UMR 8028, 77 avenue Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France 3 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, USA e-mail:
[email protected] 4 Royal Observatory of Belgium, 3 avenue Circulaire, 1180 Brussels, Belgium Received 24 January 2011 / Accepted 14 July 2011 ABSTRACT Context. Ceres is the most massive body of the asteroid belt and contains about 25 wt.% (weight percent) of water. Understanding its thermal evolution and assessing its current state are major goals of the Dawn mission. Constraints on its internal structure can be inferred from various types of observations. In particular, detailed knowledge of the rotational motion can help constrain the mass distribution inside the body, which in turn can lead to information about its geophysical history. Aims. We investigate the signature of internal processes on Ceres rotational motion and discuss future measurements that can possibly be performed by the spacecraft Dawn and will help to constrain Ceres’ internal structure. Methods. We compute the polar motion, precession-nutation, and length-of-day variations. We estimate the amplitudes of the rigid and non-rigid responses for these various motions for models of Ceres’ interior constrained by shape data and surface properties. Results. As a general result, the amplitudes of oscillations in the rotation appear to be small, and their determination from spaceborne techniques will be challenging.