Space & Astronomy

Second mystery bright spot sighted on Ceres

By T.K. Randall
February 26, 2015

Image: Rendering of the Dwarf Planet Ceres
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA / (PD) Scientists were left scratching their heads last month when NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which is on its way to Ceres and is due to arrive there within the next two weeks, returned pictures showing a peculiar bright spot located on its surface.

Now the mystery has deepened even further thanks to a new set of images returned by the probe revealing a second bright spot on Ceres situated only a short distance away from the first.

"The brightest spot continues to be too small to resolve with our camera, but despite its size, it is brighter than anything else on Ceres," said camera team leader Andreas Nathues.

"This is truly unexpected and still a mystery to us."

Source: Space.com

Tags: Ceres, Dawn