Water vapor plumes raise question about life on dwarf planet Ceres (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTBfV2c-2JYjJ2GrcgeqrTu23pghHtch8n0UjVfSZSC3LxmE9Vns0rQpLVQ8Xx_Z05yBeI2kHwoNVO9qzH9Slixnfuu6ciMgADYrvBuWZdgttLGRG3ptHH0nhI9ny3ezP4HU2iFgzCTDI/s1600/2014-01-23T005709Z_1_CBREA0M02NG00_RTROPTP_2_SPACE-CERES.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTBfV2c-2JYjJ2GrcgeqrTu23pghHtch8n0UjVfSZSC3LxmE9Vns0rQpLVQ8Xx_Z05yBeI2kHwoNVO9qzH9Slixnfuu6ciMgADYrvBuWZdgttLGRG3ptHH0nhI9ny3ezP4HU2iFgzCTDI/s1600/2014-01-23T005709Z_1_CBREA0M02NG00_RTROPTP_2_SPACE-CERES.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390443181227_5543" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By Will Dunham</div><div class="body-slot-mod" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.307693481445313px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-width: 300px;"><div class="yom-remote"><div class="" id="mediacontentrelatedstory_container"></div></div></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390443181227_5548" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The dwarf planet Ceres, one of the most intriguing objects in the solar system, is gushing water vapor from its unusual ice-covered surface, scientists said on Wednesday in a finding that raises the question of whether it might be hospitable to life.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390443181227_5556" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Using the European Space Agency's Herschel infrared space telescope, researchers spotted plumes of water vapor periodically spewing from Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt residing between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390443181227_5566" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The discovery comes just over a year before the scheduled arrival of NASA's Dawn spacecraft for a closer look at Ceres, a round body measuring about 590 miles in diameter - less than a third of the size of the moon.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere," Michael Küppers of the European Space Agency in Spain, who led the research published in the journal Nature, said in a statement.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The question is what is causing these plumes of water vapor from two locations on Ceres. One idea, according to scientists, is that the sun sometimes warms parts of the icy surface enough that water vapor emerges.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="f53ab642-9b31-3219-8dca-ede91f4d4ffb" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dwarf-planet-ceres-seen-main-asteroid-belt-between-photo-010050986.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Dwarf planet Ceres is seen in the main asteroid belt,&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 217px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Dwarf planet Ceres is seen in the main asteroid belt,&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="217" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CfxtMZWCbYJVBPv_0KuOMw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIxNztxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-01-23T010050Z_1_CBREA0M02TF00_RTROPTP_2_SPACE-CERES.JPG" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Dwarf planet Ceres is seen in the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, as ill …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Another possibility, they say, is that there is liquid water under the frozen surface of Ceres and that vapor is shooting out of geysers or icy volcanoes. Dramatic geysers have been spotted on Enceladus, one of the innermost moons of the giant ringed planet Saturn.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Scientists think Ceres holds rock in its interior and is wrapped in a mantle of ice that, if melted, would amount to more fresh water than is contained on Earth.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Ceres was discovered in 1801, more than a century before the discovery in 1930 of the more famous - and more distant - dwarf planet Pluto. It is one of the few places in the solar system aside from Earth where water has been located.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">A big question about the discovery of the water vapor on Ceres is what it means regarding the possibility of life.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"One of the things that's intriguing here is the possibility of there being liquid water as opposed to ice," Marc Rayman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director, said in a telephone interview.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Certainly all life that we know depends on water. And so this is part of the larger question of where can life exist."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">He said it is too early to declare that Ceres a good candidate for possible microbial life.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I think that's a stretch," Rayman said. "Rather, I would say this indicates Ceres might be a good place to look to understand more about the places life could form - and perhaps places that life has formed.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"There's a lot more than just water that's required for life. And whether Ceres has those other ingredients - which include, for example, a source of energy and all of the nutrients that life requires, the rest of the chemistry - it's too early to say."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390443181227_5585" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Rayman said scientists plan to use instruments aboard Dawn to map the surface of Ceres, measure its surface elevations, catalogue its minerals and study its interior structure. Dawn is due to arrive at Ceres in March or April 2015.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390443181227_5570" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Editing by Eric Walsh)</div></div>

Water vapor plumes raise question about life on dwarf planet Ceres (BLOG)

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The dwarf planet Ceres, one of the most intriguing objects in the solar system, is gushing water vapor...

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