Recent observations indicate that the largest asteroid or dwarf planet in the solar system, Ceres spouted the water in the form of vapor into space. Scientists have long suspected that Ceres store the water. However, only this time the release of water from the celestial object was detected.
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| The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory. (Picture from: http://sci.esa.int/) |
The facts found through research using the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft, Herschel and has been published in the latest issue of the Nature journal. Water vapor is believed to come from the dark areas on the surface of the asteroid. However, scientists are not sure why the water vapor ejected into space.
Michael Kuppers from ESA revealed, one hypothesis is the presence of water causes a blast of heat from the sun so the ice instantly evaporates." Another possibility is the presence of energy in the interior of Ceres," Kuppers said as quoted by the BBC on Wednesday, January 22, 2014.
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| 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. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/) |
"And that energy can make the water come out the same way as the glaciers, the difference due to the low pressure at the surface of the asteroid, the water comes out in the form of a gas, not a liquid," he added. The amount of water vapor ejected into space Ceres is not much. However, Herschel is able to ensure that the water molecule is released.
Actually the Herschel spacecraft was disabled last year. And in 2015, the Dawn spacecraft will re-investigate Ceres. Dawn will orbit and map the 950-km wide celestial object and determine the composition and structure. "Dawn also will observe a dark area with high resolution and probably will answer questions on the process behind the creation of water vapor," said Kuppers further. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | BBC | LIVESCIENCE]
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