Nasa scientist believes mystery planet is home to alien life in stunning breakthrough
A NASA scientist has suggested there may be life in the seas of a dwarf planet saying astrobiologists are constantly "surprised" by the level of activity on the outer edges of our solar system.
A NASA scientist has hinted at the possibility of life existing in the seas of a dwarf planet, stating that astrobiologists are continually "surprised" by the level of activity on the outer fringes of our solar system.
Ceres, a dwarf planet which is technically an asteroid, is classified as a dwarf planet due to its sufficient mass to be shaped by gravity. NASA's Dr David Grinspoon believes there may still be liquid water inside this unusual planet that could support life.
It comes as earlier this year NASA unveiled the first pictures of the Sun's eruptions, which cause the Northern Lights.
Investigations of the planet have yielded more results than researchers initially anticipated. Speaking to WIRED, Grinspoon revealed: "Recently we sent a space craft there and we found some surprising things."
A bright flash of white on the planet suggests there was once water there - as it is a salt deposit. This also implies that the water that existed there may have mirrored the salty composition of our own oceans here on earth.
Dr Grinspoon explained: "The most interesting thing was a crater and what we found is that it is a salt deposit and that salt deposit indicates that there was water on the planet.", reports the Irish Star.
"This suggests that this was a water world at one point and may still even have liquid water on the inside."
He added: "This is very exciting to astrobiologists because it means that dwarf planets like Ceres are places where you could have in the past had habitable conditions on the inside."
However, the thrilling news doesn't stop there. Grinspoon suggested that it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the life-supporting conditions observed on the planet may still exist.
He said: "Who knows maybe at present some of these planets still have habitable oceans."
Dr Grinspoon added scientists are consistently astounded by the findings of their space explorations, saying, "the more we explore the solar system the more we're surprised by the level of activity on some of these worlds that we thought were dead."
He mentioned scientists have determined for life to exist, water is necessary, adding "we have experiments that show that the building blocks of life are very easy to create."
Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, floats between Mars and Jupiter. This small planetoid is known for its "alien mystery lights" - a term used to describe the strange illuminations emanating from its surface - which have now been identified as salt deposits.