Analysis of the data sent by the Dawn probe (which has been orbiting Ceres since spring 2015) has shown that organic materials and liquid water, as well as various salts and ammonia-rich minerals are present on Ceres, the largest planetoid in the planetoid belt. The prescence of water came as a surpirse. Most of it is frozen, slightly below the surface and on the bottom of deep craters, but with near certainty, there also is liquid water in the form of an underground ocean.
Measurements with an infrared-spectograph has shown the prescence of organic compounds, mostly concentrated near the Ernutet crater.
Which organic compounds exactly are present is hard to say, according to Italian planetary researcher Crisitina de Sanctis and her colleagues.
But in their article in Science, they do say that all signs point to the present of carbohydrate chain molecules.
It is unlikely that those molecules, being rather vulnerable, were formed in space and impacted. They must have been formed on Ceres itself.
In a commentary on the article in Science, ESA-researcher Michael Küppers says the prescence of both water and organic molecules seems to indicate that primitive life has formed on Ceres at some point. Which would be very appropriate, with Ceres being the Roman godess of fertility and motherly relationships.
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Topic: Space Thread (Read 283966 times)