(Image Credit: IMCCE-Observatoire de Paris/CNRS/Y.Gominet, B. Carry)
Direct evidence of water has been discovered on the dwarf planet Ceres, with vapor plumes erupting into space.
Through the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory scientists have discovered water vapor is escaping from 2 seperate regions on the surface of Ceres, which is the largest asteroid in our solar system. Scientists believe the water is possibly erupting from icy volcanoes or sublimation of ice into clouds of vapor.
“This is the first clear-cut detection of water on Ceres and in the asteroid belt in general,” said Michael Küppers of the European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain, leader of the study detailed today (Jan. 22) in the journal Nature.
The research will give insights into how Ceres was formed, and supports the theory that the planets moved around quite alot within the solar system during its formation.
Scientists have theorized that water existed on Ceres for over 30 years, and now Küppers and his colleagues have confirmed the finding.
Read the entire article here at LiveScience.
