After Bright Spots, Four-Mile High Mountain Adds To Ceres Mysteries

The Ceres bright spots continue to mystify scientists striving to determine their origin.

A NASA press release informs that investigators have nearly ruled out ice causing the spots by examining the light reflection information captured by Dawn spacecraft. Next is to check if salts are reflecting sunlight, causing the bright spots in the Occator crater which have puzzled the astronomical world since Ceres spotted them earlier this year.

"The science team is continuing to evaluate the data and discuss theories about these bright spots at Occator. We are now comparing the spots with the reflective properties of salt, but we are still puzzled by their source. We look forward to new, higher-resolution data from the mission's next orbital phase," said Chris Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at UCLA.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. NASA's Dawn arrived at Ceres in March.

The Ceres investigation team also found a towering feature on the dwarf planet. The 4-mile high mountain seems to be located in the middle of nowhere. Scientists said it was a surprise that the mountain was not located in the middle of a crater, making it an interesting subject for investigation. There are yet more discoveries that have to be investigated when Dawn enters a closer orbit in mid-August.

"These include a pair of large impact basins called Urvara and Yalode in the southern hemisphere, which have numerous cracks extending away from them, and the large impact basin Kerwan, whose center is just south of the equator," said Dawn science team member David O'Brien.