NASA Finds Salt Water Volcano in the Asteroid Belt. Nobody Talk Is Talking About It

Added: 2026-06-05

[00:00:00]Today, on Guess What I Found Out, NASA sent a spacecraft to two different worlds in the asteroid belt, and well, one of them turned out to have a volcano that erupts salt water, and the whole thing ended with the probe being intentionally stranded in orbit forever.

[00:00:19]This is not a metaphor.

[00:00:22]This actually happened.

[00:00:25]In September 2007, NASA launched a spacecraft called Dawn, which is either a poetic name for a mission about the origins of our solar system, or, you know, the most on-the-nose branding in space exploration history.

[00:00:41]Probably both.

[00:00:42]Dawn's job was to travel billions of kilometers into the asteroid belt and visit two of its largest residents, a rocky planetary embryo called Vesta, and an icy dwarf planet called Ceres.

[00:00:54]Not one world, two, back-to-back, using the same spacecraft, which, at the time, had never been done.

[00:01:04]The secret weapon was ion propulsion.

[00:01:07]Instead of a massive chemical rocket burn that either gets you somewhere fast or doesn't get you there at all, ion engines work by ionizing a gas, usually xenon, and accelerating it out the back at very high speed to produce a gentle, continuous thrust.

[00:01:24]It's slow to start, but over months and years, it builds momentum in a way that would be impossibly fuel expensive with conventional rockets.

[00:01:33]Dawn also got a boost from a Mars gravity assist early on, swinging past the red planet to redirect its trajectory without burning extra fuel.

[00:01:43]It was efficient, patient, and frankly, a little smug about the whole thing.

[00:01:49]Dawn arrived at Vesta in July 2011, becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit a body in the main asteroid belt.

[00:01:59]And Vesta, let me tell you,