DiscoverSETI LiveHidden Habitability: What Dawn Discovered Beneath Ceres' Icy Crust
Hidden Habitability: What Dawn Discovered Beneath Ceres' Icy Crust

Hidden Habitability: What Dawn Discovered Beneath Ceres' Icy Crust

Update: 2025-11-04
Share

Description

Join host Beth Johnson and guest Dr. Sam Courville, lead author of a new study on Ceres, as they dive into the possibility that the dwarf planet may have had the energy needed to support habitability for much longer than once believed. Using data from NASA's Dawn mission, researchers uncovered evidence of persistent geologic activity, brine movement, and long-lived energy sources beneath Ceres' icy surface. Could this small world in the asteroid belt have been more habitable than we ever imagined? Press release: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-ceres-may-have-had-long-standing-energy-to-fuel-habitability/  Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt3283 (Recorded live 2 October 2025.)

Comments 
loading
In Channel
loading
00:00
00:00
1.0x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

Hidden Habitability: What Dawn Discovered Beneath Ceres' Icy Crust

Hidden Habitability: What Dawn Discovered Beneath Ceres' Icy Crust

SETI Institute