Dwarf planet Ceres: Origin in the asteroid belt?

Dwarf planet Ceres may have originated in the asteroid belt - and did not necessarily “migrate” there from the outer edge of the Solar System. This is indicated by bright, ammonium-rich deposits in Consus Crater, as a research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen argues today in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets. The researchers analyzed observational data from NASA's Dawn space probe. Dawn had already discovered widespread ammonium deposits on the surface of Ceres years ago. According to some scientists, this suggests that frozen ammonium played a role in the dwarf planet’s formation. Ammonium is only stable in the outer Solar System. The new study finds another possibility: like other bright deposits on Ceres, the ammonium-rich material in Consus Crater could have been transported to the surface from within by Ceres' curious cryovolcanism.