Dwarf planet Ceres may have been habitable - for microbes - a couple of billion years back
(2025/08/22)
- Reference: 1755838688
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/22/ceres_habitable_period/
- Source link:
Dwarf planet Ceres, the unpleasant lump of icy rock orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, once had an environment in which microbes might have thrived.
So says a [1]paper titled “Core metamorphism controls the dynamic habitability of mid-sized ocean worlds—The case of Ceres” published this week in the journal Science Advances .
As [2]distilled by NASA, whose Dawn spacecraft captured the data used in the paper, previous examinations of Ceres suggested that ice present on its surface came from water that percolated up from internal reservoirs of liquid brine.
[3]
Salt deposits on Ceres’ surface suggest that brine contained carbon, which microbes need. The new paper suggests the dwarf planet may also have produced enough chemical energy – thanks to radioactive decay of material in its core – to make its internal ocean warm. Maybe warm enough that, in concert with the presence of water and carbon, microbes would have felt at home.
[4]Japan discovers object out beyond Pluto that rewrites the Planet 9 theory
[5]Astroboffins analyzed old data and found a candidate dwarf planet in the Oort cloud
[6]Venus has a quasi-moon and it's just been named 'Zoozve' for a sweet reason
[7]Ring system discovered around dwarf planet Quaoar leaves astronomers puzzled
29th moon for Neptune Another celestial discovery NASA [8]announced this week is a newly-observed moon of Neptune.
A February observation with the James Webb Space Telescope spotted moon S/2025 U1, a rock just 10km in diameter.
Matthew Tiscareno of the SETI Institute said the moon “is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons.”
Any microbes that lived on Ceres would have been “chemotrophs” – organisms that rely on chemical energy rather than solar energy, because even when the dwarf planet was warm inside, its surface was hellishly cold and exposed to radiation.
NASA thinks the paper’s findings have implications for studies of other small icy bodies in the solar system, because if they too had radioactive cores they might have had their own periods of habitability.
[9]
Humanity has first-hand evidence that planets like our own, warmed by a star and internal heat, can host life. We’ve also seen moons tugged by gravitational forces produce environments that look capable of hosting some sort of life.
The paper suggests Ceres could have offered life another niche.
[10]
Evidence of any LGMs – little green microbes – will be devilishly hard to find, as the paper suggests that any “period of habitability” on Ceres existed between ~0.5 and 2 billion years after its formation. Astroboffins think the dwarf planet formed 4.5 billion years ago, so any residents perished at least 2.5 billion years ago. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt3283
[2] https://www.nasa.gov/missions/dawn/nasa-ceres-may-have-had-long-standing-energy-to-fuel-habitability/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKg_vdVLpITvPuNhV1DteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/asia_in_brief/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/30/2017_of201_dwarf_planet_discovery/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/venusian_quasi_moon_named_zoozve/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/dwarf_planet_ring_system/
[8] https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/webb/2025/08/19/new-moon-discovered-orbiting-uranus-using-nasas-webb-telescope/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKg_vdVLpITvPuNhV1DteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKg_vdVLpITvPuNhV1DteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
So says a [1]paper titled “Core metamorphism controls the dynamic habitability of mid-sized ocean worlds—The case of Ceres” published this week in the journal Science Advances .
As [2]distilled by NASA, whose Dawn spacecraft captured the data used in the paper, previous examinations of Ceres suggested that ice present on its surface came from water that percolated up from internal reservoirs of liquid brine.
[3]
Salt deposits on Ceres’ surface suggest that brine contained carbon, which microbes need. The new paper suggests the dwarf planet may also have produced enough chemical energy – thanks to radioactive decay of material in its core – to make its internal ocean warm. Maybe warm enough that, in concert with the presence of water and carbon, microbes would have felt at home.
[4]Japan discovers object out beyond Pluto that rewrites the Planet 9 theory
[5]Astroboffins analyzed old data and found a candidate dwarf planet in the Oort cloud
[6]Venus has a quasi-moon and it's just been named 'Zoozve' for a sweet reason
[7]Ring system discovered around dwarf planet Quaoar leaves astronomers puzzled
29th moon for Neptune Another celestial discovery NASA [8]announced this week is a newly-observed moon of Neptune.
A February observation with the James Webb Space Telescope spotted moon S/2025 U1, a rock just 10km in diameter.
Matthew Tiscareno of the SETI Institute said the moon “is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons.”
Any microbes that lived on Ceres would have been “chemotrophs” – organisms that rely on chemical energy rather than solar energy, because even when the dwarf planet was warm inside, its surface was hellishly cold and exposed to radiation.
NASA thinks the paper’s findings have implications for studies of other small icy bodies in the solar system, because if they too had radioactive cores they might have had their own periods of habitability.
[9]
Humanity has first-hand evidence that planets like our own, warmed by a star and internal heat, can host life. We’ve also seen moons tugged by gravitational forces produce environments that look capable of hosting some sort of life.
The paper suggests Ceres could have offered life another niche.
[10]
Evidence of any LGMs – little green microbes – will be devilishly hard to find, as the paper suggests that any “period of habitability” on Ceres existed between ~0.5 and 2 billion years after its formation. Astroboffins think the dwarf planet formed 4.5 billion years ago, so any residents perished at least 2.5 billion years ago. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt3283
[2] https://www.nasa.gov/missions/dawn/nasa-ceres-may-have-had-long-standing-energy-to-fuel-habitability/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKg_vdVLpITvPuNhV1DteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/asia_in_brief/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/30/2017_of201_dwarf_planet_discovery/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/venusian_quasi_moon_named_zoozve/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/dwarf_planet_ring_system/
[8] https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/webb/2025/08/19/new-moon-discovered-orbiting-uranus-using-nasas-webb-telescope/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKg_vdVLpITvPuNhV1DteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKg_vdVLpITvPuNhV1DteAAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "LGMs – little green microbes"
Yet Another Anonymous coward
>You can't expect me to believe that none of them have developed intelligent life
Because there's bugger-all down here on Earth?
Re: "LGMs – little green microbes"
Anonymous Coward
Because there's bugger-all down here on Earth?
It is increaingly becoming evident that the answer to your question is a resounding 'no'.
.
Re: "LGMs – little green microbes"
Anonymous Coward
The main proof that extraterrestrial life is intelligent is that they stay well away from Earth..
Correction
Gene Cash
Actually, no, that's 29th moon for *Uranus* as per the link.
"LGMs – little green microbes"
So, that's how much we have lowered our expectations. We'll be happy to find the dead, fried remains of some bacteria somewhere before Jupiter.
I remain convinced that there is intelligent life out there in the Universe. You can point a telescope anywhere in the night sky and, with enough time, you'll find entire galaxies. You can't expect me to believe that none of them have developed intelligent life. Beings that look up into the night sky and wonder, who else is out there ?
The only problem is the trillions upon trillions of kilometers between us and them.
And there's no Universal Postal Service.