Dawn Gets Closer Look at Ceres' Mystery Bright Spots

This is the closest view of dwarf planet Ceres’ cratered surface captured to date — it’s also the most detailed view yet of those mysterious bright dots. Detailed it may be, but their exact nature remains elusive.

This new series of observations, stitched together as an animation, were captured between May 3 and 4 at a distance of only 8,400 miles (13.600 kilometers), providing a resolution of 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometers) per pixel.

“Dawn scientists can now conclude that the intense brightness of these spots is due to the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface, possibly ice,” said Christopher Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dawn’s science mission is now well underway since arriving in orbit around the small world in March. The spacecraft has now completed its first mapping orbit, a 15 day single orbit, allowing the mission’s instrumentation to study the entire dwarf planet’s surface. Scientists are now planning a survey orbit that will see Dawn orbit Ceres every 3 days at an altitude of only 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers).

From Discovery News