A photo from open sources
Ceres is the first asteroid ever discovered water, and it may be due to this very unusual volcanic process astronomers discovered direct evidence of the existence of water on the dwarf planet Ceres is in the form of steam erupting into space from its surface, a source which may be volcanic geysers.
A photo from open sources
Ceres, a dwarf planet or a giant asteroid – depends on of which terminology to apply is the largest object in asteroid belt located at a distance of 2.8 astronomical units from the sun.
Using the Herschel Space Observatory owned by European Space Agency, scientists recorded water steam coming from two regions of the celestial body.
“This is the first indisputable evidence of water as Ceres and on an asteroid in principle, “- says the head a study recently published in the journal Nature, Michael Kuppers.
Scientists suspected that Ceres has a substantial supply water for 30 years, but only now Küppers and his colleagues have evidence. Using the spectrometer of the Herschel Observatory managed to detect signs of water in the form of steam emissions. Command researchers estimated that an asteroid is throwing into space approximately 6 kilograms of water vapor per second.
One of the possible sources of water is considered “icy volcanism. “As is the case with a volcano, a substance hidden under surface, heats up and is thrown out. Only in contrast from a volcano instead of molten rock in this case protruding water.
NASA’s Dawn Interplanetary Research Station will reach the orbit of Ceres in early 2015, and will be able to respond to Some questions regarding water on the surface of an asteroid. By the way, “Dawn” recently visited another famous asteroid, Vesta, and also found on its surface traces of volcanic eruptions.
A photo from open sources
Water Volcanoes
