How the fountains are created is still a bit of a mystery. The two competing theories are that either it works like geysers on Earth (energy within the asteroid pushes the water to the surface and the low pressure on the surface yields vapours) or the Sun's heat warms the surface ice and converts it into steam. Either way, we will have to wait until next year when DAWN flys by and will be able to get better images.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Water Vapour of Ceres
Summary: The Herschel Telescope has detected unmistakable water vapours spewing off of the asteroid Ceres. The vapours had been previously seen and suspected to be water vapours, but it wasn't until Herschel looked at the streams with its instruments designed specifically to detect water molecules in space.
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