Mireia Cuñé Alonso, NOTICIA 5

Ingredients for life on the Ceres dwarf planet have been found

NASA probe 'Dawn' discovers organic components in Ceres

SUMMARY

Some areas of Ceres dwarf planet are rich in organic components considered key ingredients for life. They would not reach Ceres through an external source, such as the impact of an asteroid or comet, but would directly originate in this celestial body which, scientists estimate that was born 4.5 billion years ago. They are the main conclusions of a study realized with data collected by the NASA spacecraft Dawn.

According to the work published in the journal Science, these are components called aliphatic hydrocarbons that could have played a role in the chemistry that makes life possible. In the past, it has also been detected ice, water vapor, salts or ammonia in Ceres.
The spectrometer of the spacecraft Dawn discovered the organic components in the northern hemisphere of Ceres, in the area of a crater 50 kilometers in diameter called Ernutet. 

The white, yellow and orange tones indicate the areas with the highest concentrations of organic compounds around the Ernutet / NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/ASI/INAF/MPS/DLR/IDA

Scientists believe that it is unlikely that these components come from an external source because the extreme heat that would have generated that shock would have destroyed them. and the distribution of these elements would be more dispersed.
According to Michael Kueppers, a researcher at the European Space Agency (ESA) at the European Center for Astronomy in Madrid (ESAC), the presence of these organic compounds, together with the abundant ice and water vapor found, suggests that Ceres could be a candidate to shelter some form of life: "If there is an ocean underground you could think of some form of primitive life."

LINK

http://www.elmundo.es/ciencia/2017/02/16/58a5a12f46163f7f648b4572.html

COMMENTARY

I think that with nowadays technology, we will reach to found life somewhere in the space. This article also says that, to investigate more about this dwarf planet, they could send a radar to see if there is an ocean, that could be several kilometers below the surface. This would be an exellent mission to find out if it could really be life there, which would mean a huge step in the history of science.

DATE

16/02/2017

SCIENTIFIC SCOPE

Astronomy

GLOSSARY:

•  Aliphatic hydrocarbons: an aliphatic compound is a hydrocarbon compound containing carbon and hydrogen joined together in straight chains, branched trains or non-aromatic rings. Aliphatic compounds may be saturated (e.g., hexane and other alkanes) or unsaturated (e.g., hexene and other alkene, as well as alkynes).
  The simplest aliphatic hydrocarbon is methane, CH4. In addition to hydrogen, other elements may be bound to the carbon atoms in the chain, including oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, and sulfur. Most aliphatic hydrocarbons are flammable.