One strange object floating in our asteroid belt could seemingly be habitable for life, as a recent discovery has left scientists shocked.
Sometimes asteroids hold metal that could give every single person on Earth up to $1,000,000,000, whereas other discoveries far away from our planet have revealed strange water reservoirs that shouldn't really be possible.
Ceres, however, now appears to be rather unique in that recent studies have demonstrated its ability to grow or sustain organic life, in a revelation that has drawn strong attention from the astrobiology world.
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The object is large enough to be classified as a dwarf planet - similar to the long-downgraded Pluto - and has remains a point of fascination with scientists due to its unique relationship with water.
It once possessed vast salt water oceans underneath its crust, stretching across the entire surface, and while most of these have disappeared some still remain unfrozen to this day.
New discoveries have shown that the object might just have the capability to sustain life, as a layer of organic chemicals has been discovered across Ceres' 'Ertunet Crater' which stretches hundreds of square miles.
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It is understood that these organic chemicals, also called aliphatics, likely appeared within the last 10,000,000 years - which although that seems like a very, very long time for us humans, it's a really quite recent in the grand scheme of space.
This was evaluated through studies by Maria Cristina De Sanctis and her team at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, as they used ultraviolet radiation attacks alongside electronically-charged atoms to simulate the grueling effects of existing in outer space.
Consequently, this study indicated that these chemicals were not able to sustain the radioactive treatment for long periods of time, and therefore must be no older than 10 million years, which proves the potential suitability for life on Ceres.
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It seems like these chemicals and organic compounds were allowed to come to life through a reaction between Ceres' rocky structure and the salt water that still exists on the object's surface, creating energy within the ocean as a result.
As reported by Inverse, the study proposes the likelihood of the compounds journey towards the surface as a direct result of a meteor that impacted Ceres and formed the Ertunet Crater. Within this crater cracks were formed, creating the perfect pathway for new life to emerge.
There has currently been no visits to Ceres since NASA's 2012 Dawn mission, and while De Sanctis would love to push for a return to the objects surface in order to collect new information, there are unfortunately no current plans in place.