[madaxe_again]

Pretty unlikely. Not entirely impossible, but Ceres would be an odd place for ETs to set up shop and then stay hush for a few eons.

More likely it's water or sulphur. I think we may be in for a big "Ceres is volcanically (could by cryovolcanism) active" shock, given the lack of cratering they've also observed.

It's a decent size, its composition is only hypothetically known, it may have more latent heat than we expect. If so, it's extremely exciting news, as it means it's not quite the inhospitable cold, dry, rock we expected.

[fit2rule]

Honestly, I seriously hope its aliens. We zoom in once we get closer and discover structures that can only be described as a UFO base. While we're all astonished, we see one take off, it lands on the White House lawn and offers us all a free ride to the nearest star.

I'd go.

[madaxe_again]

The most likely "aliens!" thing we have at the moment is FRBs.

Perhaps there'll be a little sign there saying "all these asteroids are yours, except Ceres."