Ceres, an Unexpectedly Active Dwarf Planet: Findings from the Dawn Mission
The Dawn mission to explore the largest asteroids Vesta and Ceres has uncovered unexpected findings from Ceres, the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt. Believed to be comprised of ice rock, new Dawn mission data have confirmed these inferences from telescopic data and have also shown evidence for brines in the Ceres subsurface extruding to the surface, as recently as a few tens to hundreds of millions of years ago. Here I will describe a selection of the findings from the Dawn mission that point to the unusual aqueous activity on this body and its modern geological activity.