WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is an ‘ocean world’ with a large reservoir of salt water beneath its frigid surface, scientists said in findings that increase interest in this dwarf planet as a possible outpost for life.
Occator Crater and Ahuna Mons appear together in this view of the dwarf planet Ceres acquired by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on February 11, 2017. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / Handout via REUTERS
Research published on Monday based on data obtained by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which flew close to 35 km (35 km) from the surface in 2018, offers a new understanding of Ceres, including evidence indicating that it remains geologically active with cryovolcanism – volcanoes that drive ice-cold material.
The findings confirm the presence of a reservoir from the bottom of brine – salt-enriched water – remnants of a large ocean beneath the ground that is slowly being liberated.
“This elevates Ceres to the status of ‘ocean world,’ and notes that this category does not require the ocean worldwide,” said Dawn planetary scientist and lead researcher Carol Raymond. “In the case of Ceres, we know that the liquid reservoir is on a regional scale, but we can not say for sure that it is global. Most importantly, however, there is a large amount of liquid. ”
Ceres has a diameter of about 950 km. The scientists focused on the 57-kilometer-wide (92 km-wide) Occator Crater, formed by an impact about 22 million years ago in the northern hemisphere of Ceres. It has two bright areas – salt crosses left behind by liquids that percolate to the surface and evaporate.
The fluid, they concluded, formed in a brine reservoir hundreds of miles (km) wide, lurking about 25 miles (40 km) below the surface, causing fractures to cause the salt water to escape.
The study was published in the journals Nature Astronomy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications.
Other bodies of the solar system outside the Earth where oceans are known or appear to exist underground include Jupiter’s moon Europe, Saturn’s moon Enceladus, Neptune’s moon Triton and the dwarf planet Pluto.
Water is considered as an important ingredient for life. Scientists want to assess whether Ceres was ever habitable due to microbial life.
“There is a lot of interest at this stage,” said planetary scientist Julie Castillo of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “in quantifying the deep-brine reserve’s viability potential, especially given that it is cold and fairly rich. is salted. ”
Report by Will Dunham; Edited by Sandra Maler
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