Journalists must all go to the same school. They parrot the words “building blocks of life” without knowing what they are saying. They usually mean amino acids, which are found in living organisms. By saying “building blocks of life” they want us to think that you can put some of them together, like blocks, to create life. Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
Another reason to strip the journalist’s license, is that the article does not state this: “Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.” It’s an asteroid, but because it’s big, they call it a planet. Sorry, but you can’t do that. We’ve been taught that there are 8 planets, and that Pluto is not a planet. You can’t add one to the list without telling us.
Stop trying to find likely planets “just like Earth,” when there is no evidence for that.
You’re right. They hype this stuff. Don’t get me wrong; it’s cool that we go check out the solar system and I support it completely. Exploring Ceres increases our knowledge of space and the technology to explore it. But it is what it is. A drab lifeless piece of rock.
The mixture of ingredients present is “necessary but insufficient”, also lacking the organizational theme present in all life.
They called it a "dwarf planet", which is also the categorization that includes Pluto.