Dawn spacecraft finds signs of water on Vesta

YosemiteSam

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Now this is interesting. The question is, who wants to go Bass fishing on Vesta with me? :D

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Dawn spacecraft finds signs of water on Vesta

Vesta, the second-most-massive body in the asteroid belt, was thought to be bone dry. But NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has found evidence that smaller, water-rich asteroids once implanted themselves in Vesta’s surface. The water stays locked up in hydrated minerals until subsequent impacts create enough heat to melt the rock and release the water as a gas, leaving pitted vents in the surface.

The discovery shows that yet another body in the inner Solar System has a water cycle, says Carle Pieters, a planetary scientist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a member of the Dawn science team.

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There are probably a lot of other planets in the universe that has/had water in some form. About 99.999% is in different forms though such as locked up in rocks, crystallized deep below the surface, H30 (hydronium), etc.

The key is finding the right atmospheric pressure, gravity and other conditions to make it possible in liquid form on the surface.
 
dexternjack;4741831 said:
There are probably a lot of other planets in the universe that has/had water in some form. About 99.999% is in different forms though such as locked up in rocks, crystallized deep below the surface, H30 (hydronium), etc.

The key is finding the right atmospheric pressure, gravity and other conditions to make it possible in liquid form on the surface.

Mars surface is get as warm as 70F. :)
 
Sam I Am;4741837 said:
Mars surface is get as warm as 70F. :)
I bet Mars did have water at some point millions and millions of years ago or millions of years in the future :)
 
Too bad Mar's interior physics couldn't meet the challenge to keep the water it had locked up against the solar winds stripping it out.

Oh well.

Come on 2015! Next up, Ceres! Then Eris! Oh wait, nobody cares about little old Eris.
 
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