Water Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres, May Erupt from Ice Volcanoes

An artist's impression of water outgassing from two sources on the dwarf planet Ceres, which is also the largest asteroid in the solar system. 

Credit: IMCCE-Observatoire de Paris/CNRS/Y.Gominet, B. Carry

Astronomers have discovered direct evidence of water on the dwarf planet Ceres in the form of vapour plumes erupting into space, possibly from volcano-like ice geysers on its surface.

Using European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, scientists detected water vapor escaping from two regions on Ceres, a dwarf planet that is also the largest asteroid in the solar system.

The water is likely erupting from icy volcanoes or sublimation of ice into clouds of vapour.

Artist's impression of Ceres. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

"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 has implications for how Ceres formed, and supports models that suggest the planets moved around a lot within the solar system during its formation, Küppers told reporters.

ESA Scientists have suspected that there is a substantial amount of water on Ceres for about 30 years.

An earlier study found hints of water in the form of hydroxide, a product of water's dissociation, on Ceres in 1991, but the finding wasn't confirmed by later observations.

Now, Küppers and his ESA colleagues have confirmed the finding, using the ESA Herschel Space Observatory's spectrometer to look for signals of water.

Clouds of water vapour around Ceres absorbed the heat that radiates from the dwarf planet, which Herschel's instrument detected.

The team found that Ceres produces about 2×10^26 molecules, or 13 lbs. (6 kilograms), of water vapour per second from its surface.

Read the full article on the ESA Herschel portal

More Information: 'Localized sources of water vapour on the dwarf planet Ceres': Nature 505, 525–527 (23 January 2014) doi:10.1038/nature12918