Feb. 16 (UPI) -- All of the basic ingredients necessary for life can be found on the surface of Ceres, the dwarf planet found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Now, new research suggests organic compounds found on Ceres are naturally occurring, born of geochemical processes hiding beneath Ceres' surface.
"This discovery of a locally high concentration of organics is intriguing, with broad implications for the astrobiology community," Simone Marchi, a senior research scientist at Southwest Research Institute, said in a news release. "Ceres has evidence of ammonia-bearing hydrated minerals, water ice, carbonates, salts, and now organic materials. With this new finding Dawn has shown that Ceres contains key ingredients for life."