Have you heard tales of colonies on Mars? Have you wondered of the vast depths of Europa? I would like to talk about a different unlikely candidate for life: Ceres. Ceres is a dwarf planet, smaller than Earth's moon, but it may just be the best place in the solar system for life to thrive -- outside of Earth, that is. Any key, or arrows, or click! I am happy to answer any questions you may have! If you think there is a mistake or a typo, please tell me! Please also tell me if there's information in the project that isn't sufficiently backed up in the bibliography. I highly recommend reading some of the stuff in the bibliography, it's all really interesting! The 'Further reading' section of the credits is for stuff that wasn't needed to make my argument but that I still find interesting.
Bibliography -- Notice -- solarsystem.nasa.gov has been recently replaced by science.nasa.gov. Many links below this may redirect there. Some other links may not work. -- Ceres -- https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/ceres/in-depth/ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/keywords/dp?subselect=Target%3ACeres%3A https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/22jan_ceres/ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/dawnatCeres2015.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/spacecraft/index.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/mission/index.html https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/what-is-a-dwarf-planet https://www.space.com/28640-living-on-ceres-asteroid-belt.html -- Mars -- https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/in-depth/ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/by-the-numbers/ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/680/solar-system-symbols/ -- Europa -- https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/by-the-numbers/ https://europa.nasa.gov/ https://suberic.net/~dmm/astro/moons.html -- Astrobiology -- https://www.livescience.com/66109-tardigrades-moon-israeli-lander.html https://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/12855775 https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5511186/ https://www.livescience.com/58309-how-tardigrades-survive-drying.html https://sun.iwu.edu/~tardisdp/tardigrade_facts.html https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011AsBio..11...65B/abstract https://www.space.com/40898-low-light-bacteria-mars-colonization.html https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpy.12169 -- Other resources -- https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2156/asteroid-belt/ www.wikidata.org (for finding sources) commons.wikimedia.org (for finding sources) https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/multimedia/pia17046.html https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/ Further reading https://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/bioengineering-branch https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=ceres https://europa.nasa.gov/news/91/nasa-invites-public-to-sign-poem-that-will-fly-aboard-europa-clipper/ (space poetry???) https://europa.nasa.gov/message-in-a-bottle/sign-on/ (read a space poem!!!) The Martian by Andy Weir The second half, about the possibility of sending life to Ceres, is highly theoretical & uncertain, my overexcited summary is but for fun. It does not contain lies but it is a best case scenario. Keep in mind that the information in this presentation is likely somewhat curated. I preferred sources that agreed with me & left out information that would make the presentation less fun; for example: Given the temperature on Ceres, tardigrades could only survive there for a few minutes, despite being able to survive at higher temperatures (say, -20C) for many years. If there is liquid water on Ceres it is much too salty to be ideal for life. Despite a lack of sunlight on Europa, life there could get energy from the radiation from Jupiter instead.
