August 2020

Credit: University of Copenhagen / Lars Buchave. Many planetary materials exhibit distinct isotopic compositions. For example, the isotopic compositions of oxygen differ between the terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus,!-->…

The dwarf planet Ceres, which sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is not a sterile space rock as previously believed. New data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft has shown this to be a water-rich world.After analyzing the…

In 1801, astronomers discovered the first body in the asteroid belt, a region of the solar system between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Called Ceres, it was understandably originally classified as an asteroid. Today, over 200 years…

In its dying moments, NASA's Dawn spacecraft uncovered a secret that Ceres, a dwarf planet in our solar system, had been hiding for ages. Bodies of salt water could be buried below the surface, the space agency has revealed. The…

In the asteroid belt, a huge region of space between Mars and Jupiter, millions of rocky bodies move serenely around the sun in a timeless cosmic dance. The queen among the dancers is Ceres, the belt's largest object and a "fossil" from…

The strange white spots of Ceres The Dawn mission was launched in 2007 with an unconventional ion engine that left it in orbit around Vesta, the second largest object in the asteroid belt, for 14 months before venturing into Ceres in 2012.…