Water Plume Detected At Dwarf Planet Ceres

astroengine writes "Astronomers analyzing data from the now defunct Herschel infrared space observatory have made a huge discovery deep inside the asteroid belt. Dwarf planet Ceres, the largest body in the region, is generating plumes of water vapor. 'This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,' said Michael Küppers of the European Space Agency in Spain and lead author of a paper published today (Jan. 22) in the journal Nature."

Comments

Re:Water=life

[T.E.D.]

Not true. Life has been found at the bottom of our oceans where no light penetrates (or oxygen, for that matter). Some suggest it may even have started there. I don't know about that, but the current empherical facts are:

• We aren't really sure what life's requirements actually are
• Everywhere on earth there is water and we've looked, life exists
• We haven't yet looked for life in any liquid water outside of earth

So any theories about whether alien water might or might not have life are at best unproven.