Ceres may have life on it

• Posted by T Ghosh January 24, 2014 - Filed in Technology - #ice  #life  #extraterrestrial  - 1,220 views

  

  Asteroid belt's largest object became more attractive when Scientists confirmed water signs  on the dwarf planet Ceres which is one of the few bodies in the solar system to have such features .
  
  In the Herschel Space Observatory, a team was  led by the European Space Agency who detected water plumes spewing from two regions on Ceres. 
  
  The observations, published in Thursday's issue of Nature, come as Nasa's Dawn spacecraft is set to arrive at the Texas-sized dwarf planet next year. 
  
  It is doubted that Ceres is water-rich, but previous detections have been inconclusive. "It is the  first definitive evidence of water on Ceres which confirms about the  icy surface," said lead author Michael Kuppers of the European Space Agency. 
  
  "So in enar future It will make Ceres a more exciting target for exploration and space travel ," he said. 
  
  The latest finding puts Ceres in a special class of solar system objects with active plumes of water, a key ingredient for life. The company includes Jupiter's moon Europa — where an underground ocean is believed to exist — and the Saturn moon Enceladus, where jets have been seen venting from the surface. 
  
  The source of the water plumes is still unclear. Scientists think there may be a layer of ice just below the surface that gets heated by the sun or the plumes could be spewed by ice volcanoes.