Is there life on Ceres? They discover the molecules necessary for life in the water of a dwarf planet

Dwarf planet Ceres discovered in 1801 It is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and also one of the most interesting objects for astronomers in the whole world. And given that, it could offer vital information in the search for extraterrestrial life large amounts of organic material present in it.

It was visited by NASA’s Dawn mission last decade. The spacecraft revealed that Ceres hosts complex organic compounds, possible volcanism where salt erupted, and abundant water ice. But the way in which aliphatic organic compounds – which are distinguished carbon and hydrogen chains– on the dwarf planet Ceres, has been the subject of intensive research since its discovery by Dawn in 2017.

Now, new research led by planetary scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory further expands our understanding of how asteroid impacts affected the molecules present on Ceres, determine its origin and evaluate the habitability of the dwarf planet.

Laboratory experiments

“We find that organic compounds may be more widespread than previously thought, and that they appear to be resistant to the effects of Ceres-like conditions,” the researchers explain in their study presented at the GSA Connects 2023 meeting of the United States Geology Society.

Combining everything we know so far, Experts believe that the planet could have the basic elements to support life beyond Earth. If the organic compounds are native to Ceres, this could mean something very important about the dwarf planet’s past habitability.

“Although researchers have done shock and impact experiments with different types of organic compounds in the past, there has been a lack of study focusing on the type of organic compounds detected on Ceres using the same type of analytical method used by Dawn to detect them. says Terik Daly, lead author and planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

In the laboratory, scientists reproduced the impact conditions on the surface of Ceres in the laboratory. They used vertical range NASA Ames Center shoot organic matter that fits the profile of what we know about the dwarf planet. Collisions occurred at speeds between 2 and 6 kilometers per second and at angles between 15 and 90 degrees to the horizontal.

Astrobiological potential

Then, They combined two different Dawn data streams (their suite of camera and spectroscopy data) to have a more detailed map of the location of organic compounds on the dwarf planet. All of this supports the idea that the organic matter came from inside Ceres.

“Using the strengths of two different data sets collected on Ceres, we were able to map potentially organic regions on Ceres at a higher resolution. We can see a very good correlation of organic compounds with older shock units and with other minerals such as carbonates which also indicate the presence of water. While the origin of organic compounds remains poorly understood, we now have good evidence that they formed on Ceres and probably in the presence of water” says Juan Rizos, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland who is now an astrophysicist at the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics in Spain.

The potential astrobiological implications of the research are considerable. “There is a possibility that Ceres could have a large internal supply of organic matter. So, from my point of view, this result increases the astrobiological potential of Ceres,” explained Rizos.

The abundance of water ice on Ceres and the likelihood that it was once an ocean world suggests that this dwarf planet could potentially support key elements associated with life.

“They are an interesting clue for astrobiologists because they are often considered the building blocks of life,” concluded Joseph Razzell Hollis, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum in London.

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