Dwarf Planet Ceres Spewing Water into Space
Findings from the retired Herschel telescope
It's a bit of cliche, to ask readers to imagine themselves standing on the surface of an alien world, surveying some odd or awesome landscape. Lakes of hydrocarbons and monsoons of sulfuric acid are just the beginning, as planet-hunters like the Kepler device find diamond planets and lonely giants to expand multi-dimensional the spectrum of planetary design. That said, the latest (and likely final) piece of news derived from the observations of Europe's now-retired Herschel telescope, begs for such a treatment: standing on the surface of Ceres, the largest asteroid and the closest dwarf planet to Earth, you could watch subterranean oceans boil.
Or, at least, that might be what you'd seew. Recent findings prove only that Ceres has water on or below its surface and that that water is being somehow ejected into space. One top theory as to how this might occur is laid out above: the heat of the Sun, unfiltered by an atmosphere, super-heats large bodies of water or ice, causing out-gassings of water and ice so large that they're visible from space. These plumes seem to be affected by the seasons as the dwarf planet moves through its orbit, lending support to the idea of sunlight as a major driver of these water jets.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
TRAUMATIC LEAKAGE