News Planetary Science

Ceres harbors homegrown organic compounds

Data hint dwarf planet may have had habitable environment

Ceres

HINTS OF LIFE?  Organic matter has been detected on the dwarf planet Ceres, shown.

JPL-Caltech/NASA, UCLA, MPS, DLR, IDA

By Elizabeth Eaton

- More than 2 years ago

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has detected organic compounds on Ceres — the first concrete proof of organics on an object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

This material probably originated on the dwarf planet itself, the researchers report in the Feb.