Scientists find water ice on asteroid’s surface

This is Awesome! Fianlly we have the proof that water is very abundant in the solar system and maybe the universe! I only hope this is a spark in the exploration of our solar system by humans, sooner than later.

Source Here

Scientists have found lots of life-essential water — frozen as ice — in an unexpected place in our solar system: an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter.
The discovery of significant asteroid ice has several consequences. It could help explain where early Earth first got its water. It makes asteroids more attractive to explore, dovetailing with President Barack Obama's announcement earlier this month that astronauts should visit an asteroid. And it even muddies the definition between comets and asteroids, potentially triggering a Pluto-like scientific spat over what to call these solar system bodies.

Asteroid may have more water than Earth

The largest known asteroid could contain more fresh water than Earth and looks like our planet in other ways, according to a new study that further blurs the line between planets and large space rocks.

Possible Destination? Researchers Find Water Ice and Organics on Asteroid

We usually think of asteroids as dark, dry, lifeless chunks of rock, just like the image of Asteroid Itokawa, above. But some asteroids may be more like "minor planets" after all. Researchers have found evidence on one asteroid – 24 Themis – of water ice and organic materials. This discovery is exciting on two fronts: one, this evidence supports the idea that asteroids could be responsible for bringing water and organic material to Earth, and two, if the proposed path for NASA is to visit an asteroid, having water and organics at the destination makes things a bit more interesting.

Search for Alien Life Set to Take Giant Leap Forward

Another possible place to look for life in the solar system is asteroids. Researchers announced for the first time Wednesday that they'd found direct proof of frozen water and organic compounds – which could include the ingredients for life – on a space rock in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Both water and organic materials are considered necessary to make a place habitable.

When I came across the first article I searched foe more breaking news about this great discovery. Will we go mine asteriods soon? Will we be taking that step to colonize the moon sooner than Obama sugested?

I figure with this new news we should be Solar System bound in no time!

Lets do this!

[edit on 28-4-2010 by theability]

Already got a thread on it here

Awesome post, thats very cool indeed.

"By some accounts, Earth should have been too hot in its early days to have retained any of its original water. This has led some scientists to suspect our oceans were delivered by a barrage of asteroids or comets once the planet had cooled."

If Earth was to hot in the beginning I wonder how these asteroids came about all there water.

Also Isn't there a theory our planet smashed with another one and our waters mixed. Maybe thats what the asteroid belt is the remnants of that planet.

Very cool I can see all the bottled water companies going wild. Asteroid water for the elite. sublimatingly Fresh. The rothschilds only use ice from asteroids!

Also consider the moon has vast amounts of water, discovered by the Chandrayann-1 lunar probe. They also claim that the Moon makes its own water!

So if the Moon can produce water, I' am sure a large percentage of celestial bodies have H2O. So don't be so surprised to find life teeming from the water.

[edit on 28-4-2010 by Gabo-]