On January 22nd, 2014 scientists announced that water has been found on the dwarf planet, Ceres. Ceres is the largest object within the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. The water was discovered by a team at the European Space Space Agency using the Herschel Space Telescope.
Hershel's infrared telescope has discovered plumes of water vapor rising from the surface of Ceres. This is the first time that water has been discovered on an object in the asteroid belt. Ceres is considered to be an embryonic or proto planet with a diameter of 590 miles and is about the size of Texas.
The question that scientists are trying to answer is, what is causing the water to be released? Some believe that surface ice is being melted by the sun which turns it to a gas that is released into space. Others think that some energy may still exist inside Ceres, causing low pressure geysers that release the water as a vapor instead of a liquid.
These and other questions may be answered in the near future when the Dawn mission arrives in the vicinity of Ceres. Dawn is an ion propelled spacecraft launched in 2007 on a mission to explore the asteroid belt. Dawn should rendezvous with Ceres in the spring of 2015 after a visit with the asteroid belt's second largest object, Vesta. At that time Dawn will map the surface geology and chemistry of Ceres with high resolution cameras, which may help to reveal the source of the out gassing.
It is already known that Ceres has an atmosphere and a surface of ice. It is also believed that Ceres could possibly contain more fresh water than the Earth.
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