Floating Between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres May Have More Water Than Earth (nasa.gov) 82
This week NASA's Dawn space probe swooped within 22 miles of the surface of Ceres, the dwarf planet that's the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA's JPL reports:
In more than three years of orbiting Ceres, Dawn's lowest altitude before this month was 240 miles (385 kilometers), so the data from this current orbit bring the dwarf planet into much sharper focus... "[T]he results are better than we had ever hoped," said Dawn's chief engineer and project manager, Marc Rayman, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Dawn is like a master artist, adding rich details to the otherworldly beauty in its intimate portrait of Ceres."
EarthSky reports NASA captured an up-close glimpse of those tantalizing bright spots on Ceres: The spots, evaporate deposits composed of sodium carbonate, are thought to be left over from when water came up to the surface from deeper below and then evaporated in the extremely tenuous and sporadic water vapor "atmosphere." That water could be either from a shallow sub-surface reservoir or from a deeper reservoir of salty brines percolating upward through fractures. The deposits in Occator Crater are the largest and brightest of these deposits. As with many discoveries in planetary science, they were completely unexpected, and show that Ceres is not just an inert ball of rock and ice.
Slashdot reader thegameiam adds: Ceres may have more fresh water than exists on Earth. Perhaps this would make colonization of the asteroid belt more of a possibility?
EarthSky reports NASA captured an up-close glimpse of those tantalizing bright spots on Ceres: The spots, evaporate deposits composed of sodium carbonate, are thought to be left over from when water came up to the surface from deeper below and then evaporated in the extremely tenuous and sporadic water vapor "atmosphere." That water could be either from a shallow sub-surface reservoir or from a deeper reservoir of salty brines percolating upward through fractures. The deposits in Occator Crater are the largest and brightest of these deposits. As with many discoveries in planetary science, they were completely unexpected, and show that Ceres is not just an inert ball of rock and ice.
Slashdot reader thegameiam adds: Ceres may have more fresh water than exists on Earth. Perhaps this would make colonization of the asteroid belt more of a possibility?
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Ceres: having more water than Earth... (Score:5, Interesting)
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I knew Slashdot was behind the curve, but this makes Apple look like they're on the bleeding edge.
We have to get our collective ... (Score:5, Interesting)
... lazy and stupid assess out there into space. Humanity has yet so much to do but somehow only the war mongering and pretty idiots seem to be in charge. How I wish we could move on further and faster than we are. .... I really wish to see the Advent of feasible space colonization in my lifetime. That would be cool. And restore my faith in humanity.
While I agree with you on some level Qbert... (Score:4, Insightful)
What you said is exactly why your premise is WRONG. We have to fix ourselves before we can survive in space. Earth is a huge ship and we are fucking it up faster than we can even reasonably escape it. This is the problem to fix.
Any hope of surviving in space is dashed if we can't make Earth sustainable, this is a fucking shit show so far. We need to put SCIENCE in the driver's seat, not old moneyed coal traitor-barons of the 1800's.
Re:While I agree with you on some level Qbert... (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you considered that we evolve the species epigenetically through BEHAVIOR and the choices we make in our lifetimes? Perhaps what he suggests is precisely how we evolve ourselves to be less selfish and more cooperative: it's an endeavor that would require global participation and cooperation. That cooperation might be grudging during our lifetimes, but if that behavior becomes ingrained in our epigenetics then we might indeed achieve what you want at the same time. You think that these two activities must be separate and one precede the other, but I'm not so certain.
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Where do you see this evolution towards cooperation? I see evolution towards oppression of the individual by the collective. The laws are becoming more and more draconian, the systems of oppression grow their power. Individuals are falling in line and/or getting more depressed as this happens. Those with more initiative than others find creative ways to scam the system or go against it and get crushed. I see a conveyor belt with lots of police and oppressive systems built into it, not a society.
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As tRump proves, it is the oppression of the collective by the individual...who owns 88% of all Capital,that is, the 0.1%
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Re: We have to get our collective ... (Score:2)
You're confusing a lack of interest with a lack of ability. It's a common error, but a rather silly one.
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It's amazing how we are able to explore the surface of the Moon, Mars, etc, yet still have not been able to explore the bottom of the oceans on Earth.
I'm sorry to say you are incorrect.
There have been several descents into the Mariana Trench [wikipedia.org], which is the 'deepest' part of the oceans: roughly 11 km.
The difficulty is, of course, largely due to pressure, or perhaps pressure differences. The difference between the vacuum of space and atmosphere at sea level is ... well, one atmosphere; the difference between the bottom of the Mariana Trench and atmosphere at sea level is more like 1085 atmospheres. Given this difference you might be able to see why visiting
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Re: We have to get our collective ... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a good thing Europe got it's shit together before exploring the Americas, or the whole project would have just been one massive waste of time.
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I think you were trying to be sarcastic, buEurope did get it's shit together before exploring. I mean, the Vikings were in the Americas first, and look how well that did for them.
Re: We have to get our collective ... (Score:2)
Interesting. So if Europe had it's shit together back in the late 1400s, by what metric are you concluding that we don't have our shit together today?
Re: We have to get our collective ... (Score:4, Funny)
Back then people knew how to use apostrophe's.
Oop's!
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Well, the colonizing countries had strong and increasing national unification going, effective international coordination (from the Pope), solid industrial/economic bases with governments generating surpluses, recovery from the black death, and a resurgence in the use of science to make predictions as opposed to be guided by 2000 year old documents. With the exception of not having the plague, which of those are we doing now?
Re: We have to get our collective ... (Score:2)
Well, the colonizing countries had strong and increasing national unification going, effective international coordination (from the Pope)
Soooo ... you want to see an increase in nationalism and on overarching theocracy sucking wealth from nations while they engage in constant war with each other? OK. Interesting start.
solid industrial/economic bases with governments generating surpluses, recovery from the black death, and a resurgence in the use of science to make predictions as opposed to be guided by 2000 year old documents. With the exception of not having the plague, which of those are we doing now?
Well given that you're talking about humanity as a whole, we are doing all of those things, in different places. Some nations have strong industrial bases. Some are generating surpluses. Most, with the exception of the third world, are making much better use of science than ever before. So I would say we are doing all of
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Bullshit!
--
Henry VIII.
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Well, the colonizing countries had strong and increasing national unification going, effective international coordination (from the Pope), solid industrial/economic bases with governments generating surpluses, recovery from the black death, and a resurgence in the use of science to make predictions as opposed to be guided by 2000 year old documents.
China had all of the same advantages and explored as far as Africa but then turned inwards and let her fleets rot. In addition to all of the above, the European countries had competition and various arms races. No one nation could say "no" to exploration and colonization for all of them and any of them them could say "yes" for themselves.
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Those 2000-year-old documents were only 1300 to 1000 years old then.
Unless you're talking about Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
Re: We have to get our collective ... (Score:2)
They had it all together as good as it gets in the 15th century. That's why they explored.
We have it all together as good as it gets in the 21st century. That's why we're exploring.
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And I'd like a pony. Well, no, not a pony, but there's lot of stuff I'd like. Heck, I'd like to be a space tourist and visit the ISS. But you know, just because you want something doesn't mean it makes sense. Right now space colonization doesn't make sense. For exploration, robots do a better job. For preserving the human race, there are many, many things we could do ahead of trying to plant a colony on another planet.
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Frak the governments. We will do it privately like what SpaceX does.
Uh ... (Score:2)
How do we arrivee at Ceres "may more fresh water than Earth," if the calcium carbonate deposits that spark that speculation are considered to be from geysers of brine from deep in the minor planet's interior?"
Where I live, brine is not considered "fresh water" ...
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Oh science... (Score:5, Funny)
Why must you screw up so many science fiction plots? How's the protomolecule supposed to get loose on Eros if the Cant' isn't hauling all of that ice from Saturn to Ceres?
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Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition on articles involving space but the Electric Universe Brigade is very predictable.
G&T? (Score:3)
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While there have been some promising early observations, no one yet has directly observed the hoped-for geysers of juniper.
Re: G&T? (Score:2)
Talk to Elon; I'm sure he can get you one for the right price.
Confusing title, FRESH water (Score:5, Informative)
The article says, Ceres may have more water (total) than Earth has fresh.
The posting makes it sounds like Ceres has more water than we have in the oceans. Fresh water is only 2.5% of the water on Earth.
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if the water has "salty brines" and sodium carbonate it certainly isn't fresh water but "salt water"
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Which is a pretty rubbish comparison.
It's like saying there are more soldiers in the Irish army than there are left-handed catholics in the Chinese navy.
Beltalowda (Score:2)
Ob (Score:2)
If it's floating it must have quite a lot of water, or it'd be resting on the bottom.
Aliens (Score:2)
I hate to be the aliens guy, but if the core is warm enough, could there be a water layer with temperatures possessing microbe or slow metabolizing lifeforms. Not sure if it could be very evolved though. Lack of oxygen gas may be a problem, but then there are substitutes ask the bacteria living on Earths deep sea vents.
crash it into mars (Score:2)
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There's Neptune with all that Ammonia . It's reassuring that our solar system will never run out of toilet freshener.
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So the solution is obvious: send all the Indians to Neptune!
I get worn out doing all the thinking.
Colonization (Score:2)
Perhaps this would make colonization of the asteroid belt more of a possibility?
You would have to fuck Earth environment a lot more to make living on an icy rock attractive.
Drop it on Mars (Score:3)
Drop the thing on Mars. Sure sure sure, make it as *slow* of a drop as possible, but still. Kersplash!
I'll even give a sample business model.
Rockets
Tesla car in outer space
David Bowie song
Rogue "dwarf planet" with lots of water
Mars
Profit!
Umm, No? (Score:1)
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Let's check that - mass of Ceres is approximately 0.0009393 * 10^24kg, while Earth is 5.97 * 10^24kg, for a ratio of 0.00016 (0.016%). My collection of bits of solar system data gives the proportion of water (by mass) in Earth as 0.00022. that would be about 1.4 Ceres masses. Not a wild disagreement, since we've considerable uncertainty about