The dwarf planet Ceres hosts organic compounds that are possible ingredients for life.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft is orbiting Ceres (pictured), which is also the largest asteroid in the Solar System, and the craft has previously spotted signs of salts, ice and other basic chemicals on its surface. Using Dawn's mapping spectrometer, a team led by Maria Cristina De Sanctis at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome has discovered signatures of complex organic matter — in particular open chains of carbon atoms — on Ceres.
Organic compounds have been seen on comets and a few other asteroids. But Ceres has water and internal heat as well, meaning that it could have a rich, potentially life-sustaining environment.
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Ceres has complex chemistry. Nature 542, 395 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/542395a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/542395a
