http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25849871 Herschel space telescope press release: http://sci.esa.int/herschel/53125-herschel-discovers-water-vapour-around-dwarf-planet-ceres/ Abstract of scholarly article published in Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/full/nature12918.html Localized sources of water vapour on the dwarf planet (1) Ceres Michael Küppers, Laurence O’Rourke, Dominique Bockelée-Morvan, Vladimir Zakharov, Seungwon Lee, Paul von Allmen, Benoît Carry, David Teyssier, Anthony Marston, Thomas Müller, Jacques Crovisier, M. Antonietta Barucci & Raphael Moreno Nature 505, 525–527 (23 January 2014) doi:10.1038/nature12918 Received 23 August 2013 Accepted 26 November 2013 Published online 22 January 2014 The ‘snowline’ conventionally divides Solar System objects into dry bodies, ranging out to the main asteroid belt, and icy bodies beyond the belt. Models suggest that some of the icy bodies may have migrated into the asteroid belt1. Recent observations indicate the presence of water ice on the surface of some asteroids2, 3, 4, with sublimation5 a potential reason for the dust activity observed on others. Hydrated minerals have been found6, 7, 8 on the surface of the largest object in the asteroid belt, the dwarf planet (1) Ceres, which is thought to be differentiated into a silicate core with an icy mantle9, 10, 11. The presence of water vapour around Ceres was suggested by a marginal detection of the photodissociation product of water, hydroxyl (ref. 12), but could not be confirmed by later, more sensitive observations13. Here we report the detection of water vapour around Ceres, with at least 1026 molecules being produced per second, originating from localized sources that seem to be linked to mid-latitude regions on the surface14, 15. The water evaporation could be due to comet-like sublimation or to cryo-volcanism, in which volcanoes erupt volatiles such as water instead of molten rocks. ==endquote== The water vapor was seen by the European telescope HERSCHEL which operated 2009-2013. This telescope was positioned at the Sun-Earth L2 point, 1.5 million km straight out from Earth. If things go as planned, the spacecraft Dawn will arrive at Ceres in March of 2015 and will be able to observe surface features and activity up close.