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Fresh look at dwarf planet Ceres

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tocqueville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-10-06 05:43 PM
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Fresh look at dwarf planet Ceres
By Molly Bentley
Pasadena

First impressions count - unless you're Ceres.

Last month, the asteroid was re-classified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and now new images of its surface reveal a surprisingly diverse surface terrain, scientists say.

"We thought Ceres had a flat surface," said Benoit Carry, from the Observatoire Paris-Meudon, "but our images show that it is rich in surface features."
...................................

The Keck results also support Ceres' suspected oblate shape, which scientists say could be the result of as much as 25% water ice in it mantle. If so, the amount may be greater than all the fresh water on Earth.

"We think Ceres still contains pristine water from when the Solar System was formed," said Dr Dumas.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6037844.stm
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arcane1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-10-06 05:48 PM
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1. well how cool is that?
verrrry interesting!
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Spinzonner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-10-06 06:02 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. More like frigid than cool
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TechBear_Seattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Oct-12-06 10:50 AM
Response to Reply #2
6. A very chilly response to your comment.
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chelsea0011 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-10-06 06:03 PM
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3. Hmmmm. Maybe we should go there instead of Mars. Too far?
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eppur_se_muova Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-11-06 01:08 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. Lots of futurists/sf authors think think the Asteroid Belt is the place to
go. Water, metals, carbon, probably all available without any steep gravity wells to battle.
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htuttle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-10-06 08:32 PM
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4. Woah, if they find water on Ceres,...
...property values on Europa are going to crash! I better sell, quick!



Er, maybe I'm just getting ahead of things here...

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