Mosaic image using false color to highlight the recently exposed brine, or salty liquids, that were pushed up from a deep reservoir under the crust of the dwarf planet Ceres
A new study has revealed that the Dwarf planet is an ocean world with a reservoir of seawater beneath its surface. Earlier it was believed that the Ceres is barren space rock. The Dwarf planet is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has its own gravity, enabling the NASA Dawn spacecraft to capture high-resolution images of its surface.
Recently, a team of scientists from the United States and Europe has analysed images relayed from the orbiter captured about 35 km from the asteroid.
According to a report by The Guardian, the team focused on the 20-million-year-old Occator crater and determined that there is an "extensive reservoir" of brine beneath its surface.
Using infrared imaging, one team discovered the presence of the compound hydrohalite – a material common in sea ice but which until now had never been observed off of Earth.
Maria Cristina De Sanctis, from Rome’s Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica said hydrohalite was a clear sign Ceres used to have sea water.
“We can now say that Ceres is a sort of ocean world, as are some of Saturn’s and Jupiter’s moons,” she told AFP.
In a separate paper, US-based researchers analysed images of the Occator crater and found that its mounds and hills may have formed when water ejected by the impact of a meteor froze on the surface.
The authors said their findings showed that such water freezing processes “extend beyond Earth and Mars, and have been active on Ceres in the geologically recent past”.
