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Dawn Spacecraft Finds Signs of Water On Vesta

Posted by Soulskill on from the branson's-water-park dept.

ananyo writes "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."

2 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. water water? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    NASA is notorious for stating "water" interchangeably with the fluid state of gasses.
    This is cause the wild cry of "WATER" fuels media cycles and helps to obtain and justify project funding,

  2. Re:No water cycle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Exactly, you just need to include the entire universe and expand your time scale to match. Too bad most people don't want to live long enough though.