New close-up images of Ceres, recently released by NASA’s Dawn mission, show its in greatest detail yet.
Detailed images of the Occator crater on Ceres, which contains the bright spots, as well as oblique views of the crater and animations, have been released to the public.
Widespread speculation as to why these bright spots exist meanwhile continues. They could be salt or ice deposits, volcanic eruptions, or the result of an impact that exposed newer, brighter material below Ceres’ surface.
Conspiracy theories suggesting the possibility of remnants of an alien civilisation were also fuelled by this strange feature on Ceres – but that is typical for any large-scale, unexpected astronomical discovery.
Meanwhile, you can read more about the Dawn mission in this feature in ROOM by Dawn Chief Engineer Marc Rayman.
