NIRMAL YESODA
It was from 2015 to 2018 that NASA’s now-retired Dawn mission orbited Ceres, a dwarf planet that is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. As the probe orbited, it spotted a bright layer on the surface of Ceres. Now, a new study has found that this layer is basically salt deposits made up of sodium, carbon, and oxygen, that might have reached the surface of this dwarf planet from an underground ocean.
The new study report revealed that this underground ocean beneath the surface of Ceres could be located at least 25 miles deep, and it might be hundreds of miles wide. According to researchers who took part in this study, this geological process where salts reached the surface of the space body is still happening.
“In the case of Ceres, we know the liquid reservoir is a regional scale but we cannot tell for sure that it is global. However, what matters most is that there is liquid on a large scale,” said Carol Raymond, a researcher at NASA, Reuters reports.
As the presence of liquid water in the underground ocean of Ceres has been confirmed, experts now believe that it could also act as a first step to discover alien life that might be thriving at least in its microbial form in this dwarf planet.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator also admitted that Ceres is one of the potential candidates where humans can search for alien life. Bridenstine, in one of his recent tweets, revealed that Ceres is the latest evidence that our solar system is filled with ancient habitable environments.
Earlier, space experts have found evidence of underground oceans in Saturn’s moon Enceladus as well. Scientists believe that this underground water body could be also helping life to thrive and evolve.
