Dwarf planet Ceres has a watery secret: An 11 mile wide ice volcano

Ahuna Mons, the 13,000 foot high, 11 mile wide volcano on dwarf planet Ceres is made entirely out of ice – and provides evidence that water may have once existed beneath the planet's surface. "Ahuna is truly unique, being the only mountain of its kind on Ceres," said David Williams, co-author and associate research professor …

[graeme leggett]

Obligatory pop culture reference

Ice Volcano. Is there a Dalek base nearby?

Mine's the light brown spacesuit with the "Made on Skaro" label

[Anonymous Coward]

The boffins uncovering all of this must feel positively electric.

[Tom Paine]

planet?

So Ceres is round, and is differentiated in layers internally, and it (or something) has cleared it's orbit, so... it's a planet, right? Albeit a minor one. Like Pluto.

Right, kids?

[Alistair]

Re: planet?

I've two texts (for the youngest) that refer to it as a dwarf planet.

So, planet, albedo a small one.

[Ilmarinen]

Re: planet?

Not dwarf planet - PORG: Planet Of Restricted Growth

[LaeMing]

Re: planet?

They prefer to be called 'little planets'

[DJO]

Re: planet?

has cleared it's orbit

It lives in the asteroid belt so to say it has cleared its orbit might be a bit premature.

[Alistair]

Water, Water

Everywhere, and not a drop of it <where nestle can bottle it and make a profit>

(I'm sure they're gonna try sometime)

[Destroy All Monsters]

Bring it closer to the Sun

A gigantic salty swimming pool!

The atmosphere would be a problem...

[John Smith 19]

So now possibly the most desirable piece of off Earth real estate in the solar system

10 mile chunk of water.

That's a nice thing to have if you're looking at ISRU or living there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So now possibly the most desirable piece of off Earth real estate in the solar system

Whaddya mean? That thing is as big as Britain.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: So now possibly the most desirable piece of off Earth real estate in the solar system

So, it could do a... Brexit?

[cray74]

Re: So now possibly the most desirable piece of off Earth real estate in the solar system

10 mile chunk of water.

Don't tell the Ryan Ice Cartel. ;)

[Chris G]

Salty Ice

So kind of limited to Margaritas on Ceres.

On a more serious note; the Solar system gets more interesting with each explorative mission, for what it costs, I think for humanity it is great value for money.

I just wish I was younger and could hope to actually get out there and have a look around but I don't see that happening any time soon, or at least soon enough for a 65 year old.

[wx666z]

Re: Salty Ice

Me too! But our grandchildren will....

[Roger Varley]

Re: Salty Ice

I can't help feeling I chose the wrong career. Beating hardware into submission does pall after a while

[Stevie]

Bah!

Yawn.

Show me there are Space Aliens skiing down said ice-mountain, then you have my attention.

[Pascal Monett]

Incredible amounts of water out there

So Europa is an icy ball, now Ceres has a cryovolcano. There are astounding amounts of water out there.

Makes for good chances of finding habitable planets when we finally take to the stars, I think.

[Adrian 4]

Secret ??

An eleven-mile-wide volcano ?

TMBSDOSWWIWNPF

[TonyK]

Bigged up

That picture isn't a photo: according to NASA's Ceres pages, it's a "simulated perspective view" in which "the elevation has been exaggerated by a factor of two." I thought it looked too good to be true.

[Anthill Beetle]

Re: Bigged up

+1: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6611

[Tom 7]

Re: Bigged up

Buggered up! And why exaggerate the elevation by a factor of two?

This sort of thing really gets one into the uncanny valley. Makes google earth look realistic.

[LaeMing]

Re: Bigged up

I assume to compensate for the flattening effect of the angle at which the photo was taken?

[Unep Eurobats]

"Ahuna is truly unique"

But what is that in snowflakes, the new official El Reg unit of uniqueness? I would say the "icy volcanic activity" also found on Io, Triton and Enceladus means Ceres only bags a few extra kiloflakes on the uniqueness scale, despite all the actual snowflakes that must swirl down when the big Ahuna kicks off.

[cray74]

Re: "Ahuna is truly unique"

I would say the "icy volcanic activity" also found on Io,

Silicate lavas that are 1600K / 2400F tend to fall outside cryovolcanism. ;)

The rest of your point is well-taken, though.