Astronomers discovered unexpected activity on a giant asteroid that could point to something huge

Nestled 250 million miles from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is the largest object in the asteroid belt: Ceres. It’s home to some of the most puzzling features ever observed in our solar system, including a giant pyramid that dwarfs many mountains on Earth and several dazzling bright spots inside a 50-mile-wide crater.

Now, recent research, led by astronomers at the INAF-Trieste Astronomical Observatory in Italy, has discovered that these unique bright spots are doing something unexpected: They’re changing. And it could point to some of the most compelling evidence yet for a huge underground ocean sloshing beneath Ceres’ rocky shell. READ MORE