Dawn probe data indicates ancient flowing water on Vesta

The last place you’d expect to find signs of water erosion is in the Asteroid Belt, but researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) say that data collected during the Dawn spacecraft’s visit to the protoplanet Vesta indicates that it not only once had water, but that it formed gullies and other erosion features on its surface.

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Is it possible that the erosions were caused by some liquids other than water? or possibly by gases? how about solid particles?

• Is it possible that the erosions were caused by some liquids other than water? or possibly by gases? how about solid particles?

“The JPL team is quick to point out that what happened wasn’t flowing rivers running across the face of Vesta. The extreme cold, hard vacuum and extremely weak gravity wouldn’t allow liquid water to exist on the surface – once exposed above a certain temperature, it would immediately sublimate into gas. Instead, the water had a more indirect role to play.”

bob(from black rock) said:

Is it possible that the erosions were caused by some liquids other than water? or possibly by gases? how about solid particles?

As long as it were’nt space termites. Once your sytem is infested it’s only a matter of time…….

from the article

According to JPL, conditions on ancient Vesta included subsurface ice deposits; possibly left by comets striking the protoplanet. A few hundred million years ago, another impact exposed the deposits and heated them enough to melt the ice. The water trapped underground didn’t boil immediately and acted like the water molecules in the graphite, allowing dust, sand, and rocks to slide along to form the gullies and deposits in the impact crater walls.

CrazyNeutrino said:

Dawn probe data indicates ancient flowing water on Vesta

The last place you’d expect to find signs of water erosion is in the Asteroid Belt, but researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) say that data collected during the Dawn spacecraft’s visit to the protoplanet Vesta indicates that it not only once had water, but that it formed gullies and other erosion features on its surface.

more…

Well, since there never was any water flowing on Vesta, this really argues strongly against accepting this interpretation for any other astronomical bodies.

Some interesting images of the recent asteroid fly-by