WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is an “ocean world” with a big reservoir of salty water under its frigid surface, scientists said in findings that raise interest in this dwarf planet as a possible outpost for life.

“In the case of Ceres, we know the liquid reservoir is regional scale but we cannot tell for sure that it is global.

The liquid, they concluded, originated in a brine reservoir hundreds of miles (km) wide lurking about 25 miles (40 km) below the surface, with the impact creating fractures allowing the salty water to escape.

“There is major interest at this stage,” said planetary scientist Julie Castillo of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “in quantifying the habitability potential of the deep brine reservoir, especially considering it is cold and getting quite rich in salts.”.