Water may have flowed on asteroid Vesta

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Gullies on Vesta Suggest Past Water-Mobilized Flows

Protoplanet Vesta, visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft from 2011 to 2013, was once thought to be completely dry, incapable of retaining water because of the low temperatures and pressures at its surface. However, a new study shows evidence that Vesta may have had short-lived flows of water-mobilized material on its surface, based on data from Dawn.

"Nobody expected to find evidence of water on Vesta. The surface is very cold and there is no atmosphere, so any water on the surface evaporates," said Jennifer Scully, postgraduate researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. "However, Vesta is proving to be a very interesting and complex planetary body."

The study has broad implications for planetary science.

Read more...

[+OverSword]

Seems unlikely.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Seems unlikely.

NASA are basing their conclusions on data and images obtained by the Dawn spacecraft. They are analysed by some of the best geologists and planetary scientists on the planet and their findings are peer reviewed.

What are you basing your conclusion on?

[Cruel_Cahal]

I'm not impressed if water "once existed" on a celestial body. I want to hear about actual water being found; like massive oceans and raging rivers.

[paperdyer]

Maybe Vesta wasn't always an asteroid.

[Twin]

I guess I'm confused. So, now asteroids are dirty snowballs and comets are rocky bodies?

[SolarPlexus]

******* awesome.. water everywhere

[+DieChecker]

Maybe the landslide happened almost immediately after the crater was created? An ice pocket with a small entrance we can't see, melted and flowed down the side and caused the landslide. There is gravity there so the water still would have flowed downhill.

[danielost]

if there was water flowing there, it would have to have been enough to flow before it evaporated. kind a like the problem they had at disneyland. the first time they released 100,000 gallions of water to make the river. they made a small mistake and none of the water reached the end of the river. that mistake was they had not put any soil in the river bed, it was all sand.

[highdesert50]

Interesting that there are rather large stores of water being identified. If one considers water as a byproduct of star formation, it would seem that water must have been in sufficient abundance to have such a significant effect in the formation of a planet size objects.

[danielost]

Interesting that there are rather large stores of water being identified. If one considers water as a byproduct of star formation, it would seem that water must have been in sufficient abundance to have such a significant effect in the formation of a planet size objects.

according to my info. a star needs a certain amount of water to form. too little and it gets to hot. too much and it doesn't get hot enough.

[bee]

Maybe Vesta wasn't always an asteroid.

that's what I was thinking - maybe it is a chunk of a planet - a planet that broke up or got smashed up..?

.

[+DieChecker]

according to my info. a star needs a certain amount of water to form. too little and it gets to hot. too much and it doesn't get hot enough.

Ummmm.... I don't think so. A star is mainly hydrogen to start with. It is mainly the size and age of a star that determines how hot it is. At least as far as I know.

[danielost]

Ummmm.... I don't think so. A star is mainly hydrogen to start with. It is mainly the size and age of a star that determines how hot it is. At least as far as I know.

http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/water-enables-star-formation#.VMgukWjF9Co

To resolve this paradox, scientists have postulated the existence of a water-based "cooling system" that regulates the temperature of interstellar clouds, enabling the contraction to continue. Now a Weizmann Institute study reported in Physical Review Letters provides experimental evidence that the billions of stars that populate our firmament indeed had a watery birth.

[+DieChecker]

http://wis-wander.we...on#.VMgukWjF9Co

To resolve this paradox, scientists have postulated the existence of a water-based "cooling system" that regulates the temperature of interstellar clouds, enabling the contraction to continue. Now a Weizmann Institute study reported in Physical Review Letters provides experimental evidence that the billions of stars that populate our firmament indeed had a watery birth.

That is pretty interesting. I wonder if in the last 20 years with better space based telescopes if their hypothesis has been confirmed?