NASA has yet another discovery on the dwarf planet Ceres as the Dawn orbiter captures more images and information. Using high-tech equipment and cameras, science experts can study fully the composition of Ceres and how it differs from the Earth. Ceres was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, where it orbits in between Mars and Jupiter along the asteroid belt, first thought to be a planet but was reclassified as an asteroid in 1850.

Researchers have recently reported these findings at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco as well as in two publications. According to GeekWire, the dwarf planet Ceres consists of frozen water beneath its surface as the result of a hydrogen content determination by its instrument GRaND or Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector. Images the spacecraft have provided were from its cameras and infrared mapping spectrometer which confirms that it is ice lying on the planet's dark craters usually called 'cold traps'.

'Cold Traps' which was also observed in Mercury and the Earth's moon, however, it is still undetermined how it can stay there for a long time and to how it was delivered there. Ice or water content is indeed very crucial to NASA's studies of Ceres' origin as it will unlock questions of other early life forms in the solar system that may have benefited from the water supply. Since its launch in 2007, the Dawn orbiter have been collecting data around Ceres when it draws closer to the dwarf planet in 2015 as Christian Science Monitor reports.

As NASA continues to discover water in every surface of the solar system, their studies broadens as to how it can or has been supporting life ever since. Life forms outside Earth remains to be explored by experts but the extent of help can reach as to how this can help supply the needs of the earth.

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