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This view of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows what the dwarf planet would look like to the human eye. A new study suggests the rocky world's surface has been wobbled in the past.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
Imagine Earth's north pole drifting as far south as Ireland – that is about how much the crust of the dwarf planet Ceres has wandered over the rest of that miniature world over time, a new study finds.
With a diameter of about 585 miles (940 km), Ceres is by far the largest member of the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. Previous research suggests that Ceres might have a frozen crust, such as Jupiter's moon Europa, Saturn's moon Titan, and fellow dwarf planet Pluto.
To learn more about Ceres 'frozen nature, study author Pasquale Tricarico, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, investigated data from NASA' s Dawn space mission, which began orbiting Ceres in 2015. He focused on the shape of the dwarf planet as well as minute variations in the strength of its gravitational pullover its surface, which together shed light on the asteroid's crust. [Amazing Photos of the Dwarf Planet Ceres]
Ceres' wandering skin
The scientist discovered a number of abnormalities that suggest that the experience of the world is more important than any other. To envision this, imagine that a peach has grown from the fruit of meat and pie.
"I do not think it was speculated until now that Ceres experienced true polar wander," Tricarico told Space.com.
One possible sign of a true polar wander on Ceres is a giant ridge encircling the dwarf planet tilted at a 36-degree angle from the present equator. Tricarico suggests this may be the equator of Ceres once was.
"The shape of a body tends to bulge at its equator, which can stress the crust and leave fractures, which is what we think we see," Tricarico said.
This ridge and other anomalies on the surface of Ceres suggest that in the past, the dwarf planet's equator was tilted 36 degrees from where it lies now. In comparison, such a tilt is great enough to place Harrogate in northern England.
A familiar cosmic tale
Previous research suggests that several planets and moons in the solar system, including Earth and Mars.
This reorienting may occur in the past, but it may not be expected to change the direction of the study. Ceres may also have a wide range of differences in its crust, which can be used in a similar way.
In addition, if it looks like it's not a straight line, but it follows an S-shaped path instead, "Tricarico said. "It will be interesting to study why it was, and to connect it with the mechanism that triggered the true polar wander and what all of us have about the interior dynamics of Ceres."
Future research can also examine the potential causes of abnormalities on Ceres. One such anomaly seems to be found in a large crater on a dwarf planet, which may be the remnants of a plume of material rising over the centuries, Tricarico said.
Tricarico detailed his findings online Oct. 8 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original story on Space.com.
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