When the Dawn spacecraft finally reaches Ceres early next class , it may find a mankind much foreign than expect .
Back in January , the European Space Agency ’s Herschel Space Observatory break a swarm of water vapor surrounding the petty world . This may be ventilate from Ceres in much the same way that body of water vapour is erupting from Saturn ’s moon , Enceladus , which is only slightly larger than the asteroid . Or it may be possible that this is water vaporisation subliming from the surface as Ceres is warmed by the sun , in much the same room that the coma surrounding a comet is take shape .
The account that the cloud of water supply vapor is the outcome of cryovolcanoes like those on Enceladus would want a root of internal heat . In the character of Enceladus , this is the termination of intragroup tides created by Saturn . There is no nearby large consistence to do this for Ceres , so the interrogation of what the source of estrus might actually be is undetermined .
If the cloud is the result of Enceladus - alike geyser …
“ This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally discover on Ceres , ” tell Michael Küppers of ESA , “ or any other aim in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an glacial surface and an atmosphere . ”
While this sort of activity has not been observe before in an asteroid knock aim , it is not whole unknown . There is the enigmatic Chiron , for instance . Although earlier class as an asteroid , it was afterward found to have comet - like dimension . Chiron ’s orbit charter it in a closed circuit between Uranus and Saturn . In 1988 , as it was making its close approach to the sunlight , Chiron was honour to double in brightness . It eventually spring up a comet - like tail . Ices bound within its control surface dirt were boiling away , foul up ice and dust into a cloud palisade the body .
Not have a go at it quite what to call it , astronomers tossed a coin that landed on its sharpness so , depending on who you are talk to , the object is either the asteroid 2060 Chiron or the comet 95P / Chiron .
By the fashion , I ’ve been evade about label Ceres as either a planet , asteroid or comet since the IAU , with its usual clarity , recently reclassified Ceres . It had once been the turgid asteroid , an honor now claim by Vesta , but it is now a “ dwarf planet ” in the same category as Pluto .
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Ceres and Chiron nontextual matter by Ron Miller
astrogeologyCeresDawnScienceSpace
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