NASA Study Unravels The Inner Structure Of The Dwarf Planet Ceres

The NASA scientists studied the inner structure of the dwarf planet Ceres using a powerful data, the Dawn's spacecraft motion. They were able to map the variations in Ceres gravity for the first time, which delivers clues about the internal structure of the dwarf planet.

Dwarf planet #Ceres is layered, new gravity map study finds - via @NASA_Dawnhttps://t.co/Mrwvz979J6 pic.twitter.com/EgjbWOpMfY

— Pigs Boson (@PigsBoson) August 4, 2016

The study was published in the journal Nature. It was led by Ryan Park, the supervisor of the solar system dynamics group from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, in California and the lead author of the study and other colleagues. He said that the new data indicates that Ceres has a weak interior and that water and other light materials partly separated from the rock during a heating phase early in its history, according to NASA.

In the study, they discovered that Ceres has a special property called "hydrostatic equilibrium," which means that its interior is weak enough that its shape is governed by how it rotates. This is the reason why the astronomers consider it as a dwarf planet in 2006. The study also showed that it has compositionally distinct layers at different depths. The densest layer is located at the core. They also discovered that Ceres is much less dense than Earth, giant asteroid Vesta, the moon and other rocky bodies in the solar system. Furthermore, they also found that it has water ice.

Park said that they have found that the divisions between different layers are less pronounced inside Ceres than the moon and other planets in the solar system. He further said that Earth, with its metallic core, outer crust and semi-fluid mantle, has a more clearly defined structure than Ceres.

Ceres is a dwarf planet that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is the largest object in the asteroid belt and has a diameter of approximately 945 kilometers or 587 miles. It is also known as the object in the asteroid belt that is rounded by its own gravity. It is also considered the 33rd largest known body in the solar system.