The outer crust of the dwarf planet Ceres, which at 588 miles (946 kilometers) across is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is likely made from a dirty frozen ocean, according to new computer models.
Ceres has many of the hallmarks of being ice-rich. "Different surface features — pits, domes and landslides, etc — suggest the near-subsurface of Ceres contains a lot of ice," Ian Pamerleau, who is a Ph.D. student at Purdue University in Indiana, said in a statement. Spectroscopic data also points to there being ice beneath the dusty regolith on the surface, while measurements of the dwarf planet's gravity field also suggest a density similar to impure ice.
