Cratered Ceres

Two wayward space rocks, which separately crashed to Earth in 1998 after circulating in our solar system’s asteroid belt for billions of years, share something else in common: the ingredients for life. They are the first meteorites found to contain both liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds such as hydrocarbons and amino acids.

This image from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft records an oblique look across Ceres towards the limb of the dwarf planet. The ion-propelled Dawn probe has been exploring Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt, since March 2015.

In spring 2015 NASA’s Dawn mission, coming off the back of exploring the asteroid Vesta, entered into orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres and immediately found a puzzle for the space probe to unpick.